Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – A year older and wiser, with Canada West experience under his belt, Sheldon Prasad is ready to take on a leadership role with the MacEwan Griffins men's soccer team.
The fantastic rookie wing-back from a year ago is now one of the older players on a young, rebuilding team that is aiming for its first-ever Canada West playoff berth.
The Griffins will kick off the 2018 season this Saturday when they welcome cross-town rival University of Alberta for their first regular season action at their new home in Clarke Stadium (12 p.m., 11000 Stadium Road).
Prasad, who was a finalist for the MacEwan Athletics' male rookie of the year award last March, started every one of his 12 games with the Griffins last season, logging big minutes on the left side of the defence, while also taking all of the team's corner kicks.
"For myself, playing my first year and getting a lot of minutes, I learned a lot about the league," said the second-year Arts student out of FC Edmonton Academy. "I wasn't expecting it to be as crazy as it was and as difficult as it was. Coming out of FC, I thought I already had a lot of experience in soccer but playing my first year taught me a lot and gave me a lot of experience.
"Coming into my second year, I know what to expect, how I should prepare myself to do better in certain games. Overall, I have a better mentality of how to get into these games and how to play."
He's also in a unique position to impart that knowledge to the 12 newcomers the Griffins have on the roster this season; Prasad is now one of seven FC Edmonton Academy products wearing MacEwan silks: Zachary Rochat, who transferred from the University of Texas at Tyler, Nicholas Amico, Marcus Simmons, Tyrell Leslie, Enzo Squicciarini-Moneny and Stefan Gajic have grown up with him on the pitch.
"There is a bit more familiarity for him this year," Griffins head coach Adam Loga said of Prasad. "Obviously it's his second year, but we've also brought in players that he's very close with and familiar with.
"The expectations have to increase for him and we have to challenge him as a staff to continue to improve. He is talented, and he is very technical, but he's going to be challenged by others around him in practice to keep that standard. We're excited for that and he's excited as well."
Prasad served as Team Alberta's Canada Summer Games captain last summer, leading a team that included Squicciarini-Moneny, Gajic and Simmons, to a silver medal. So, tapping into that leadership vein is a natural for the left-footed playmaker.
"A lot of our new rookies are from FC," he noted. "We all have a certain chemistry with each other because we've been playing together for a long time.
"The best advice I can give them is to listen to our older players and our coaching staff. University soccer is way different than FC. There's a lot going on. They can learn a lot from our older players because that's exactly what I did coming into the program."
In fact, he compares it to competing at the Canada Summer Games every day. It's at that level.
There's no doubt Loga's recruiting class has the potential to be a special one, but he cautions expectations have to be held in check, considering how experience is a trump card at the Canada West level.
"As a staff felt we needed to break it down and rebuild, so we went young.," he said. "They're very talented, but they're young. So, we've got to manage expectations appropriately and not get too far ahead of ourselves."
Last season, the Griffins were far better than their 2-10-2 record indicates, carrying the play in several matches they found a way to lose. The challenge for 2018 is getting over the hump and winning those tight contests instead.
"One-hundred per cent we can learn from that," said Loga. "It's easy to be good. It's very difficult to be great. That's the separation in not only the division, but the conference. Great teams find a way to win and the teams on the top are able to nick those three points in 2-1 games and come out on top.
"We've got to learn how to win. We mentioned that at training after one of our friendlies: we're going to have to learn how to win and it's a process. That comes with experience. Again, it's a young team and we need to manage expectations, but we also have to manage the growth as well accordingly."
Alberta is among the top teams in Canada West – winning the 2016 national title with some of their current players – so Saturday's opening test is a challenge the Griffins are anticipating.
"Since we're both teams from Edmonton, we know a lot about each other," said Prasad. "We've all played with each other, against each other and so we know what the standard is. They're a good side, they're a challenging team, but this year with the people we've brought in and everything we've been doing, it will be a good game, for sure."
FREE KICKS … The Griffins will carry a 2-0-0 preseason record into the regular season – a 2-0 triumph over UNBC and a 2-1 win over ACAC institution Concordia … Hans Haagerup earned the clean sheet in last Sunday's win over UNBC, while rookie Everett Orgnero (with an assist from fellow rookie Leslie) and fifth-year Josh Samuel scored … Fourth-year Brian Mayall had a goal and an assist to pace the Griffins past the Thunder last Tuesday night, while Gajic also scored.
