Season Preview: Men's Soccer Huskies focused on process, eye return to championship game for third-straight season

The roster may have changed significantly for the Keyano Huskies Men’s Soccer team, but their three goals remain the same: qualify for the ACAC Championship, battle their way to the final, and win the final.
 
That’s been the path for the Huskies in the previous two seasons. While last year’s result didn’t go in their favour, Head Coach Niels Slotboom has retooled his roster in the hope of returning to the Championship final for a third-straight year. 
 
“Both build character,” Slotboom said of the last two championship game appearances. “You’ve got to get there first. The whole focus is on getting to that point where you get to be in a position where you get to win or lose that final.  
 
“We have enough of the returning guys that we’ve already had lots of conversations about making sure the reasons why we were in that final are continuing on and the new guys have adapted really well.”  
 
The journey itself begins Saturday, September 6 at SMS Equipment Place with their home opener against the Portage College Voyageurs. The Huskies will continue to offer free admission to all Keyano Huskies Soccer home games. 
 
Saturday, the Huskies will debut a new-look squad. Gone are the team’s long-time trio of internationals in Jacob Marshall, Cleisson Anklam, and Hafid Arellano who helped to shape the program throughout the past half decade.
 
Inserted in their place are a pair of Dutch forwards in Stef Vullinghs and Casper Jaartsveld as well as defender Harry Norman from the United Kingdom.  
 
“It’s been super easy,” second year Riley Peet noted of the transition. “They’ve all worked right into the team and it feels just like a family like last year. 
 
“We’re not focused on last year. We have a completely different team so the focus is just going forward and this weekend.”  
 
Defence, while clearly vitally important, really shows itself in the annals of the conference’s champions. Thelast team to win an ACAC Championship while also allowing double-digit goals in the regular season were the MacEwan Griffins back in the 2013 outdoor season.
 
In net, the team will continue to utilize their pair of goalkeepers in fifth year Corbin Cyprien and fourth-year Jaiden McLaren, who have both proven themselves capable in recent seasons. They’ll be tasked with integrating the program’s newest goalkeeper, Edmontonian Gabriel Fitzgerald, into the role as their respective ACAC careers near a close. 
 
That’s the benefit Slotboom is banking on – the team’s culture. Passing along the expectation of getting through each of the aforementioned goals to get to the final game of the season and giving yourself a shot at getting to the CCAA National Championship have become common practice.  

“The big part of our whole program is the culture behind it,” Slotboom said. “There’s no other way than buying into it. There’s no one more special than everybody else; everybody does the same work everybody has the same expectations.  
 
“That’s what it’s built on. It produces the right type of work ethic and mindset that you need to be successful in our league.”  
 
The Huskies’ full 2025 schedule can be found by clicking here.