Image credit: CFJC Today/Kent Simmonds

By Marty Hastings

REBUILDING SEASON?

TRU WolfPack men’s soccer team in rebuild mode, says coach Antulov

Sep 10, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Most of the players who helped the TRU WolfPack men’s soccer team win a national championship in 2022 are gone.

But major roster turnover has not quelled the team’s appetite to reach the Canada West playoffs for a seventh consecutive season.

“For me, it’s a rebuild,” WolfPack men’s soccer head coach John Antulov told CFJC Today. “But we want to be there by the time the end of the season rolls around. I’m not one of those guys that’s going to be okay with losses. Guys are going to have to step up. They’re going to have to mature probably quicker than they’re used to because we want to push these guys to get into the playoffs.”

The WolfPack have one win and three losses this season, with two home matches on the schedule this weekend.

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TRU will host the MacEwan Griffins (0-3-1) of Edmonton on Friday (Sept. 13) and the Mount Royal Cougars (1-0-4) of Calgary on Saturday.

Both matches are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Hillside Stadium.

First-year striker Lachlan Will of Vancouver was brought in this year to score goals and has two of the team’s three markers after four matches.

“I wouldn’t call it a rebuild,” Will said. “I don’t like the idea of a rebuild season because I think we have such a good group and I think we can do really, really well.”

Only five players remain from the WolfPack team that won the U Sports Men’s Soccer Championship in 2022, including defender Domenico Comita, who is part of an unusually sizeable group of seven Kamloopsians on the 2024 roster.

“Once again, I don’t like that terminology,” Comita said when asked about a rebuild. “I really think every year is an opportunity to win and perform. We strongly believe we have the players to take it and win it all.”

The top four teams in the seven-team Pacific Division will qualify for the Canada West post-season

Fifth-place TRU has earned a playoff berth in six consecutive seasons, marking the second-longest streak in the division.

The UBC Thunderbirds of Vancouver have made the playoffs seven years in a row.

“The quality is there, but when you have 18 new players gelling and working together, sometimes it’s a little bit hit and miss,” Antulov said. “But the more we train, the more we play, the more you can see we’re going to be there by the time the season finishes.”