When Steve Simonson looks back at the past seven years at the helm of the UNBC Timberwolves men’s soccer program and looks back the results, one thing stands out.
His T-wolves have earned at least a point in exactly half the games they’ve played..
From the day he was hired as an interim replacement after Alan Alderson left the team for a job with Whitecaps FC in London, Ont., less than a month before the 2015 pre-season, Simonson’s career record as a U SPORTS Canada West Conference head coach now stands 22 wins 44 losses and 22 ties.
Similar to Alderson’s three Canada West seasons at UNBC, Simonson’s teams took their lumps in his first two years, winning just three games and tying four over that span. But Simonson has utilized his connections with the Victoria Highlanders to attract enough talent to field teams capable most years of beating the bigger schools they face in what is arguably Canada’s top university soccer conference and there’s no reason to expect that to change.
“Like anything you’ve got to grow into what you’re hoping to become and I think that whenever Al started us in U SPORTS (in 2012) it was a big jump and we saw that with some of the results, not just records itself but the scorelines were a bit more lopsided,” said Simonson.
“I think the program, through Al and myself, we’ve closed that gap a lot and now we’re still a victim of the competitive level of Canada West, it’s so high. We turned losses into draws and now we’ve got to get that draw column into the win column. Once we really turn that corner then we’ve changed the program’s course, and that’s what we’re aiming for this year.”
The new season starts this Friday at 6 p.m. Masich Place Stadium when the T-wolves host the Trinity Western Spartans in the first game of a doubleheader weekend. None of the league watchers are predicting UNBC is on its way to a conference title (they’re ranked in the coaches poll 10th out of 13 Canada West teams) and it will be tough to contend with the fourth-ranked Spartans. But the T-wolves just might have enough firepower and defensive coverage to make a playoff pitch for the first time since 2018, when they put up the only winning season in team history and finished fourth overall in the conference.
The T-wolves’ offence feeds off the energy, playmaking ability and quick feet of mercurial midfielder Kensho Ando, the team MVP and top-five league scorer who finished atop the Canada West list with six assists in 2021. The product of Tokyo, Japan is back for his third season at UNBC and watching him move the ball and ditch defenders is well worth the price of admission.
“He’s earned a reputation as a top player in the league and his real strength is his defensive range around the field – he’s a pit bull for sure,” said Simonson. “He’s such a well-liked guy and were fortunate to have him here in Prince George.
“I hate to say it, but we’d like to see him go and move on to another opportunity at a higher level and that’s a goal for everybody. We’re hoping we can turn the corner and have the new Canadian Premier League see some of our players as potentially good enough to play in the pro leagues.”
As always, the T-wolves’ success hinges on their ability to boot balls into the net and Simonson has high expectations for the likes of veterans Cody Gysbers, Michael Henman, Mitch Linley, Gregor Smith and Anthony Preston. This is likely the last kick at the U SPORTS can for homebrew Preston before he goes on to medical school.
“Michael Henman had a really good summer and is in top form, scoring goals, and if he can stay healthy he’ll be a real handful in this league,” said Simonson. “Anthony Preston has also looked really good. Gregor Smith out of Kelowna has been lights-out dynamite as a right-winger. He’s a fast, powerful runner, great on transitions. He’s been causing teams absolute fits and we hope that will continue this season.
Nobody in the conference came close to the 61 shots Daniel Zadravec faced last year and he stopped all but 19 of them for a 1.51 average, second-stingiest in Canada West. Two other goalies, both Prince George Youth Soccer products, Yanni Ntapas and Sukhman Singh, will push Zadravec for playing time between the pipes. Zadravec was among about a dozen T-wolves who tuned up for the university season playing for coach Simonson on the Victoria Highlanders from May-July in BC Soccer’s newly-formed League1 BC.
“(Last year) we did everything but take care of the scoreline,” said Simonson. “We would actually play well and be in every single game and whether it was our error at the back or a couple missed chances, everything was close and we just didn’t win the games.
“The one thing we do have to make sure is that the defensive goals-against are lower because you allow goals you have to score more to win. That’s been a bit of a problem and that’s been a focus for us for sure.”
Simonson has seen positive signs from his squad in all three university pre-season games they’ve had this summer, facing Mount Royal, Alberta and UBC-Okanagan. Among the new recruits to watch this season are Korean import forward Hagon Kim, recruited from Parksville as an international student;, centreback Kayden Miner, a product of the Victoria Highlanders FC; and forward Max Muellerleile of Thailand, who suffered a leg muscle injury and missed the preseason.
The roster includes eight other Prince George youth soccer products - Julian Daduica, Abou Cisse, Connor Lewis, Demian Dron and first-years Trevor Scott, Matthew Botelho, Colin Stauffer and Ryan Gaiesky. Francesco Bartolillo and Rob Lewis return as assistant coaches.
The T-wolves posted a 2-5-5 record last year in their return to action after a one-year pandemic pause and finished sixth, two slots removed from the postseason cut. In 12 games they allowed 18 goals and scored 16, eighth in Canada West in both categories. To pull off a few upsets UNBC will need similar quality goaltending, a high-intensity commitment to team defence and the type of scoring consistency they lacked last year but don’t be too surprised if the UNBC men are still playing soccer when the playoff start on Oct. 29.
