Last year the UNBC Timberwolves broke new ground when they put together a winning record for the first time since they joined the Canada West Conference in 2012.
It was best university men's soccer squad the city has ever seen and the T-wolves appeared playoff-bound with a 5-4-6 record, until the final weekend of the season when that post-season berth went south on them.
Disappointing? You bet. But it wasn't the end of the world.
Now, with 10 of the 32-player roster having graduated or left the program, the T-wolves are about to begin the new season with two-thirds of their starting 11 still intact, surrounded by a new crop of replacements who just might provide the offensive kick needed to boot them into Canada West Conference playoffs.
"This team has a lot more depth than last year," said newly-minted T-wolves assistant coach Francesco Bartolillo, who graduated last year after five seasons with the team as a striker. "We obviously had a core last year, but this team, especially the attacking depth is immense this year. We have three or four guys competing for spots in every attacking position and we have a lot of quick little players."
In goal, Rob Goodey is back after a stellar 2018 season. He had to wait 2 1/2 years before he was ready the lineup but that time spent on the sidelines on the practice roster was not wasted. The 23-year-old native of Bishops Stortford, England is battle-tested. He played all 15 games last year and made 83 saves, allowing just 23 goals. Alex Dorscheid and Daniel Zadravec, who red-shirted at UNBC last year, will back Goodey in goal.
"We've got that winning mentality from the last two years, making playoffs (in 2018) and matching that record but with more wins last year, it's creating that vibe that we want to be in the mix now," said Goodey. "We know we can be there, from the history we've had.
"We have lost a few guys but we're building on the people we've gained and the people who have maybe had to bide their time like I did so long ago. We're all coming through with that experience and willingness to fight. It's a good atmosphere to be around."
The big question for the T-wolves is who will take up the mantle on defence now that Canada West first-team all-star Gordon Hall and fifth-year fullback Conrad Rowlands reached the end of their college soccer eligibility. Fourth-year defender Cody Gyspers is still on the mend with a torn ankle ligament he hurt over the winter and might not play this season.
"We lost 10 players and picked up 10 or 11, so it's a season of change and we'll find out if it's a rebuild or not, it might just be change," said head coach Steve Simonson, who has Bartolillo, Hall, Rob Lewis, and goalie coach Scott Brown helping him in his fifth season at the helm.
"You can't replace the experience. We have young guys with quality, they just don't have experience. The biggest difference is our age, we brought in a couple of third-year age guys but we're just younger overall. I'm not calling it a rebuild. We've lost a lot of experience but I think our talent level is higher than it's ever been."
Midfielder Jonah Smith and forward Owen Stewart are the other fourth-year players on the T-wolves, who are without a fifth-year veteran. Striker Stuart Rowlands, Conrad's 27-year-old brother, is UNBC's elder statesman, back for a third season after taking a year off to work.
Stewart, who turns 21 on Dec. 30, is one of the youngest fourth-year players in Canada West. He knows his team struggled to score in 2018, finding the net just 20 times, but doesn't figure that will cripple his team like it did in the past.
"I think we have a really ruthless group, we all want to get on the scoresheet and we all want to bag tons of goals and I think it will click this season," said Stewart. "We have a group that will work for each other to get that kind of attacking opportunity and it should be good."
New to the UNBC midfield are Kensho Ando, a native of Tokyo, and Egyptian-born left winger Hussein Behery, who transferred from Vancouver Island University. Third-year midfielder Joel Watson and B.C.-born recruits Gregor Smith, Reid Adams, Kwasan Cook-Thomas, Jake Dzwenka, Theo Weismiller and Noah Ballinger will help jumpstart the offence with incumbents Anthony Preston, Abou Cisse and Michael Henman.
Smith, a striker, scored 16 goals in the B.C. Soccer Premier League for Thompson-Okanagan last year. Adams, from Victoria, chose the T-wolves over UVic, where he could have played with his brother Will. Also providing depth at midfield are Prince George minor soccer products Alex Nielson, Rodney Wheatcroft, Joseph Giesbrecht and Jon Botelho.
On defence, P.G.-bred centreback Luke Brbot appears ready to step into a full-time role. Aiden Way, James Stevens, Mason Lidbetter, Graeme Lewis and Mitch Linley, who broke his wrist in an exhibition game in Victoria, are back. Demian Dron and Julian Daduica, both of whom helped the Prince George U-18s win the provincial B championship, will try to crack the 18-man roster. Dino Hronopoulos is a first-year recruit from Edmonton.
The T-wolves start their 15-game season this afternoon in Kelowna against the UBC-Okanagan Heat. Their seven-game home schedule gets underway next Friday when they host Fraser Valley in the first of a two-game set on the field turf at Masich Place Stadium.
Ranked 10th in the Canada West preseason coaches poll, the T-wolves face No. 1-ranked UBC and No. 3 Trinity Western in two-game sets, both in the second half of the season so the pressure's on to get out of the gate with some early wins.
"That will be the hardest thing for us because we have so many new bodies," said Simonson. "We need a gelling period and we don't have that. In the preseason we saw that. At moments we were really good and at moments we looked like we'd never played a game together before, which is to be expected."
Simonson is trying to instill in his undersized-but-quick team a shoot-first mentality rather than wait for the perfect pass opportunity. He's seen glimpses of that in the team's preseason tests in Vancouver and Victoria.
"The front end of our team is exceptionally dynamic, but we have not figured it out yet," he said. "We've been really close at times but we've not converted our attacking positions into chances and not into goals. I think we can with this group, but it's the hardest part of the game to get right. There's a real creative and fun spirit with this team, they love to play the game. If we can get it right at the front end we'll score goals."
