With final touches being completed on the pitch ahead of their 2025 Canada West season, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s soccer team is already facing their first challenge of the year.
That challenge comes from head coach Bryce Chapman, who is already pushing the group on what kind of team they want to be when the season kicks off on the weekend.
“That was a question that we asked our group,” said Chapman. “What does this group want to be known for at the end of the day? I think that really starts to put the characteristics that we want in players and then we start to implement the principles that we want to play around.”
Those types of conversations are being had daily for the Huskies, after a disappointing 2024 Canada West season which saw the team unable to climb out of the bottom of the Prairie Division standings for a second year in a row.
Beginning the season with a 2-1 record, the Huskies were unable to carry that momentum through the rest of the fall, only winning once more en route to a 3-10-1 record to miss playoffs for a second consecutive season.
It’s a far cry for a program just over a decade removed from their lone Canada West championship, though Chapman is encouraged with the early signs he’s seen out of their exhibition schedule.
“I think there’s just another hunger within this group,” said Chapman. “They’re a hungry group that wants to get out of that basement and get back to our winning ways that this program knows, what we’ve done over the course of the last decade.”
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Sitting on the sidelines of the Canada West playoff picture has been a sobering experience for Huskies leading goal scorer Ethan Cabral, who netted four of the team’s eight goals scored over the 2024 season.
The midfielder was a part of the Huskies’ last roster which qualified for playoffs back in 2022, however that success has not carried over as he now enters his fourth year with the program.
“You take it for granted because it was my first year,” said Cabral. “I thought playoffs is playoffs, we’re going to make it every year. But the last two years we’ve missed, so this year has kind of built a fire under us and made us stronger as a team.”
Along with Cabral, the Huskies will be returning a handful of veterans including goalkeeper Jaron Slopinski, centre midfielder Malcom Rektor, defensive back Sergio Molina and captain Luke Mackie among others.
This year’s roster will be much younger, however, as the program is incorporating 14 rookies which Chapman believes will mark a significant change in the locker room.
“The parity is so tight top to bottom,” said Chapman. “Anyone can beat anyone on any day, but we’re feeling really good about the young pieces that we’ve added to this group.
“I think we’ve upgraded compared to what we had from last year and it’s a different feel around this locker room.”
For Slopinski, entering his fourth year as starting goalkeeper, it will be a test to generate consistency with a lineup filled with newcomers to the Canada West level.
However, he believes there is enough veteran talent in the room to help the first and second year Huskies along and garner some wins along the way.
“I think it’s our drive,” said Slopinski. “Especially for more experienced players, it’s that hunger and drive to actually push our team along in those moments where maybe less experienced players start to drop in energy. That’s where we just have to step up and keep pushing, moving them along, dragging them with us and we’ll get through it together.”
Kicking off the 2025 season at home with games against fourth-ranked Calgary and fifth-ranked Mount Royal, the youth-driven Huskies will be thrown into the fire and expected to help the team get off to a strong start.
The Huskies, however, are looking at the test as the first step along their journey back to prominence, a path which will begin on their home pitch.
The Huskies, who are ranked 10th in the pre-season Canada West coaches poll, will host the Mount Royal Cougars at 7 p.m. on Friday night before welcoming the Calgary Dinos to town on Sunday at noon.
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