After rising to veteran status on the UBCO Heat during two seasons in the second division following a redshirt freshman season, Yorkton's Brandon McCallum was eagerly anticipating a third season on the pitch that would see his university club rise to the ranks of the CIS and the highest level of collegiate/university soccer in Canada. After spending the summer playing club soccer with Kelowna United and a successful preseason McCallum along with his Heat teammates were prepared for an important early stretch of the season in going on the road to start the season before hosting two home matches the following weekend as a stretch where they had a chance to prove they belonged in the top flight.
Getting three points out of the first two matches away, McCallum and the Heat defended their home ground this past weekend with two straight wins to earn full points that helped UBCO rank second in the standings for Canada West after two weeks before they host the defending back to back CIS champions UBC in the "UBC Derby" between the Thunderbirds and Heat. Holding a goal differential of +7 including a 2-0 win in their CIS debut along with back to back 2-1 victories this past weekend, McCallum feels that the Heat have shown that they belong and can compete at a CIS level. Mentioning that after going into the halftime of their first match of the season their manager told them that they proved themselves and it was time to show what they can do.
"When we went into halftime of our first match tied Nil-Nil our manager told us that we showed that we can do this and that we are a CIS level club who can go out to win this match," mentioned McCallum who added that the manager's halftime words along with the strong first half showing allowed them to carry momentum into a 2-0 away win to open up their CIS account. "After halftime we came out fired up to take the three points and we scored two quick goals to start the half which showed to ourselves as well as to UNBC that we can win matches right away at this level."
Despite the momentum building of a 2-0 win in their debut match, the second fixture with UNBC the following day didn't go as planned as the Heat failed to make it a six point weekend to start the season with a 2-1 loss that came at the hands of two early goals that caught the newcomers napping. Something McCallum mentioned made the weekend a bittersweet success after winning their debut match before losing the opportunity to steal more points in the second fixture.
"We got caught napping with some early goals before missing some chances to draw level in the second half which was frustrating to end the opening weekend with only three points after feeling we dominated the majority of the play the entire weekend despite for the 30 or so minutes in the first half of the second match."
McCallum added that while the debut win was a high point to start the season, the Heat didn't consider the weekend a success due to the dropped points in the second match.
"It was great to get that first win to show that we are a team that can win and build that belief, but we weren't really happy with just getting three points out of a weekend where we probably could have grabbed two wins."
"If we came out more focused in our second match of a back to back away from home we could have taken both matches which is something that we will need to work on to make sure that we don't leave any points up for grabs as a team, especially in the back where we let in two first half goals that had us chasing the game from early on."
However the opening weekend served as a building block for something bigger as in their first home matches the Heat satisfied an interested student body who embraced the school spirit of supporting the soccer team by packing the stands for matches against Fraser Valley and Trinity Western to open up their home fixture list in their first CIS season. With students coming out to see an entertaining match the Heat delivered in the home opener, coming up with a 90th minute goal from Enzo Paal in a match in which McCallum played the full 90 minutes in a match that he describes as the best experience in his playing career.
"To watch the team score in the 90th minute in front of a packed house to watch us play in our first CIS match was a feeling that is hard to describe even now that the week has settled in following our matches because it was such an unbelievable thrill to watch our team go and get a win at the very end of the match in front of our school," said McCallum who wasn't shy to put it up as his best sporting moment. "It was my best moment playing the game so far and celebrating the winning goal with the team after the ball went in gave us a huge boost to play Trinity Western in the following match."
In that match McCallum came off the bench to preserve a come from behind lead in which UBCO bounced back from an early goal from Trinity Western to win 2-1, learning from their shortcomings in their second game of the weekend away to get the full points at home to finish in second place after four matches in the CIS. McCallum mentioned that the preparation for two matches a weekend from the preseason has been a huge factor in securing as many points as they have to start the season.
"Everything we do is to prepare for the grind of playing two matches every weekend in the fall," mentioned McCallum. "We do two a day training sessions and play back to back games in the preseason and we make sure our fitness along with our squad depth is high enough to make sure that we will be able to play as well as possible in our second matches because it is a lot on the body to play high level football 180 minutes every weekend."
The early start was important for the Heat because their next two weekends include hosting the defending national champions along with the second best team in Canada West last season before visiting both schools the following weekend, giving them an early measuring stick to just how competitive they can be in the CIS amongst the best schools in the province. After two wins at home, McCallum feels the team has the confidence needed to get points at home this weekend once again.
"We have been feeling really confident all week after getting two straight wins and showing that we can continue to do this before playing the defending champions in UBC along with Victoria in back to back matches at home where we think that we can earn some points," said McCallum who knows they will have to improve even more to achieve that goal. "We will have to elevate our play to do that, make sure we don't concede easy chances and make sure that chances on their goal don't go begging because we will be getting less of those chances against a top program like UBC."
Playing in the back, McCallum mentioned that averaging just one goal conceded per game is a benchmark that if they improve upon will give them a top defence in the Canada West.
"Our manager is pleased with us only averaging a goal conceded a game, but the next step will be making sure we maintain that consistency and perhaps even get some clean sheets to make sure we are always staying in matches with our defending." "We have a good group of veterans who have been on the team for awhile playing together along with some young players in the back who have been impressing to start the season so there is definitely form that we can build on and hopefully improve to be a top defence."
Going into a big stretch in their season, McCallum didn't give a number of points they have as a target goal after finishing with nine out of 12 points in the opening two weekends. However he mentioned the goal is to compete for the postseason as an initial target.
"We don't have a set amount of points for certain games on the schedule or certain weekends because we want to get maximum points every time we step onto the pitch because our goal is to prove we belong in the CIS and show that we are a hard working team that can compete." "If we can continue to play to our form and work hard every match there is a chance that we can compete to make the postseason which is our goal so for now the mission is to improve on our start and continue to achieve things match by match in this first season."
