When Toronto FC landed striker Jermain Dafoe it was trumpeted as a "bloody big deal."
What's about to transpire on the MLS field Saturday afternoon in Vancouver is an even bigger deal to a group of 75 youth soccer players, most of whom call Prince George home.
The Vancouver Whitecaps are playing the Seattle Sounders in a sold-out game at B.C. Place. Just before the game the youth players will be on the field with the pros collecting autographs and picking their brains for some soccer advice.
"It's a trip we've been looking forward to since the inception of the program a year ago," said Whitecaps FC Northern regional coach Sonny Pawar.
"It's one of the highlights of the academy training centres across Canada. They all eventually get to go down on an MLS weekend trip where the athletes partake in training put on by the [Whitecaps] residency coaches and get to go down on field level and meet the players and coaches from the Whitecaps prior to the game."
The fourth-place Whitecaps (4-2-4) have two games in hand over first-place Seattle (8-3-1) and will try to close the gap on the Sounders.
Gaining access to the players right in the middle of their season is an unprecedented thrill for the Prince George contingent, who will be sharing the field with older players from the Whitecaps' Okanagan academy.
"We've got a lot of young athletes whose primary sport and passion is soccer," said Pawar. "To see a direct link from here to meeting with and shaking the hands of a professional athlete in their environment is a memory that most athletes never forget.
"If they can use that as some kind of motivation to continue with their goals and dreams, that's terrific. I've been fortunate, I've gone down several times in partaking with the first team training sessions, so that link [to the Whitecaps coaching staff] is quite well established and I'm certainly grateful for it."
The upper-level seats are curtained off for Whitecaps games at BC Place Stadium and capacity is limited to 21,000. For added incentive, the game counts for points in the Cascadia Cup series which involves the Sounders, Whitecaps and Portland Timbers.
"With Seattle being just down the I-5 [freeway], that's been a rivalry since the days of the original [North American Soccer League] and the original Whitecaps team," said Pawar. "It's always a huge game in Seattle or Vancouver."
Other Whitecaps Northern Prospects Academy coaches preparing for the trip are Joanne Wankling, Todd Kuc, Rob Lewis, Mario Mastroianni and administrator Sarah Gilbert.
On Saturday morning, the players will get to show off their skills to the Whitecaps academy coaches during a training session at Simon Fraser University fields in Burnaby.
A 90-minute group session on the field is also set for Sunday starting at 9 a.m., and Pawar said there might be an opportunity to play seven-per-side games against teams from the Okanagan or Vancouver.
Open to male and female players, the academy has 40 players in the 13-and-older group and 35 in the under-10 and under-12 age categories. Most of them played indoor soccer in the academy's fall program (October to December) and the winter program (January to March). The outdoor sessions started in early May and will continue until late-July.
The Whitecaps FC Northern summer camps will complete the first full season of the northern academy. Players under-14 can register in a two-day skills camp July 19-20 at Rotary Field conducted by Whitecaps legends Sam Lenarduzzi, Carl Valentine and other Whitecaps coaches. A five-day prospect camp for players in the under-10 to under-18 age categories is planned for July 19-23. Bart Choufour of the Whitecaps and Pawar will conduct the camp.
