The elite soccer program held their official launch on Sunday at the Great Canadian Brewhouse, kicking off what’s hoped to become a pure powerhouse in the sport in the province, one that will lead to international opportunities for its players.
“We had close to 100 people there to help us celebrate and help us really launch the program and give the boys the buzz of the excitement that even people who aren’t soccer people are feeling from the partnership,” said Moose Jaw Soccer Association technical director Jordan Jeffery.
“You’re never too confident how something is going to be received in the planning stages, how we were envisioning things with the Celtic partnership and how the soccer community outside of Moose Jaw would receive things. It’s a completely different scale to what we anticipated. We thought there would be buzz about it, but it’s a lot bigger than we thought it would be on that front and definitely outside of Moose Jaw.”
That’s because the scope of the whole thing could end up being legendary. The program was announced this past June and features a partnership with one of the greatest teams in European soccer, Celtic FC of the Scottish Premier League. The winningest team in SPL history, Celtic provides training systems and other support for the local squad, and will eventually see players and teams from Moose Jaw heading overseas to train with and face elite Scottish youth teams.
It wasn’t long after the announcement was made that Jeffery was receiving plenty of interest from prospective players, a situation that hasn’t let up.
“We’re getting calls on a weekly basis from all over western Canada, from parents and players asking if there’s going to be a team for a certain age next year or something we can create now for them,” Jeffery said. “It’s a fantastic time for us, but for me, it’s like I said to the coaching staff and the people involved in the club, this is just the beginning.”
Close to 30 players took part in the first Moose Jaw Celtic tryout this past summer.In addition to the crew of local players, top level talent from Swift Current and Yorkton have also moved to the city, in addition to a pair of players from Calgary — both of whom played some of the highest U17-level soccer Alberta has to offer.
“I think it’s potentially a very, very strong team,” Jeffery said. “We’re happy we have 19 players committed and nearly every player we invited to the team accepted, we have a strong base right now and we want to get the first couple of weeks underway and see where we’re at.”
The crew will be coached by Alex Bijelic, who was an assistant coach with the Whitecaps Academy back when Moose Jaw soccer was partnered with the Vancouver MLS team. Bijelic has since led the U17 Moose Jaw FC soccer program to great success, and will be joined by fellow high-level coach Steven Pollock as an assistant.
“Having someone of that calibre in the city, we felt it was important to showcase him as a coach and give him the opportunity to work with these players,” Jeffery said. “We wanted a coach who was just as strong as the boys and can develop them both on the field and off the field, in game situations and everything else. It’s important the coach is the figurehead of all that and it’s fantastic we have someone at that level who can handle that side of things.
Alex and Steven are fantastic coaches, you can already see the boys look up to them and they’re going to help this program grow and grow and grow into the future.”
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and increasing caseload in the province, games with outside teams are on hold for the foreseeable future. But even with just intrasquad competition, what he’s seen so far from the fledgling group has Jeffery exceptionally optimistic.
“It’s a really good group of players, with great attitudes, a great level of play and it’s exciting we had players who aren’t from Moose Jaw move to here to be part of the program,” he said. “It’s nice when you can attract that level of talent to Moose Jaw and bump up the level of the group… The best way for players to improve is to play with better players. We’ve got as many of those strong players as we can and you can already see the competitive nature from the first couple sessions.”
For more on Moose Jaw Celtic and their future plans, be sure to keep an eye on their Facebook page.
