The defending Northwest Division champion Pumas boast a roster that includes two MLS draft picks, ironically both of Canadian club Toronto FC, with Mike Ramos selected 50th overall in 2015 and Darius Madison 70th overall this year. Ramos, Hiroki Kobayashi and Nick Hamer were called up on loan last year from the Pumas to Seattle Sounders 2 of the professional USL. Javier Castro, with Oklahoma Energy of the USL, Emad Houache, with Ottawa Fury of the NASAL, and goalkeeper Austin Rogers of the Albanian First Division, are other Pumas players with pro experience.
“Kitsap is a pro team. It’s not a lot of money, but every player is paid,” said Highlanders head coach Dave Dew.
“If I had to give a pre-season ranking of our division, I would say it is Kitsap, Seattle Sounders U-23, Portland Timbers U-23 [the latter two affiliated with their MLS parent clubs], and then there is the rest of us.”
It’s not that Victoria doesn’t bring former pro experience. It does with Highlanders veterans Blair Sturrock, a former Plymouth Argyle and Swindon Town pro, and former NCAA Kentucky Wildcats star and Canada U-20 World Cup player Riley O’Neill, a former pro in the Finnish Premiership and German second division.
The Highlanders, however, mostly answer with an amateur team put together from top Island players, UVic Vikes and recruited collegians.
“We have youthful confidence,” said Dew.
Among his charges are CIS players Chris Rushworth from the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, Mitch Popadynetz from the Thompson Rivers WolfPack and Michael North and Ryan Dhillon, both from the SFU Clan. Dew said he expects all four to start tonight in Kitsap.
Rushworth and Popadynetz are both from the Interior, Rushworth from Cranbrook and Popadynetz from Nelson, and played against each other in high school. They are now roommates in Victoria while playing for the Highlanders. Rushworth’s Mount Baker Secondary team beat Popadynetz’s L.V. Rogers Secondary squad to go to the B.C. high school championships when Rushworth was in Grade 12 and Popadynetz in Grade 10, something Popadynetz chuckles still stings. Both have become good CIS midfielders, with Rushworth entering his fifth year after scoring 10 goals in the 12 Canada West games he played last season for the Pronghorns, and third-year Popadynetz three goals with four assists with Thompson Rivers.
But it was a culture shock for Rushworth, a native of Huddersfield and a former U-15 member of the Leeds United Academy, when he came with his parents at age 14 from England to emigrate to Cranbrook. It’s a town better known for hockey than soccer and that became abundantly evident for a young Rushworth.
“It was a big adjustment, and a painful one, to come from Leeds Academy to where there was nothing really of that level and to where the soccer season is three months long,” said Rushworth.
Rushworth went to another non-traditional soccer city for his CIS career at Lethbridge. But it comes with certain home-field advantages over visiting Canada West teams, particular from B.C.
“It’s cold and nasty windy and the players are wrapped in three layers,” said the accounting major, with a smile.
“But being here in Victoria reminds me of back home [England].”
So does the soccer, to a degree.
“I think we are going to have a successful team here. The standard has been very good in training,” said Rushworth.
Rushworth said he goes “box to box” on the pitch.
With attacking midfielders like Rushworth and Popadynetz, Dew said the Highlanders will play “with a lot of pace.”
The ball possession aspect will be handled by Highlanders PDL veterans Sturrock and O’Neill.
The Highlanders open at home next weekend against Calgary at UVic’s Centennial Stadium.
