PLAYER’S DIARY: Soccer at university level preps players for pros
Published 9:00 am Thursday, September 24, 2026
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This time last year, I was somewhere in the United States playing university soccer with Simon Fraser University (SFU), playing two games in a weekend and grafting to become a professional soccer player.
It was always my goal to turn pro, but 12 months ago I wouldn’t have pictured myself being where I am now. After a few good seasons in League1 BC with TSS Rovers, I was coming into the new university season as a senior player. I just wanted to be the best player on the team and see where that took me.
University soccer was a lot of fun.
It’s quite a long way off the professional set up we have at Vancouver FC, but we were very well looked after.
The NCAA is a good standard, with good coaching, and most of the players are very hungry. Compared with a men’s dressing room, we were all young, so there wasn’t really any hierarchy. Everybody is just fighting to prove themselves, which makes it all very exciting.
Playing university soccer taught me about performing on the road, staying in hotels, and playing in different conditions.
It was also where I first transitioned into a defender, after starting preseason as a striker.
I was returning from injury, when I filled in as a defender during a training drill. Nick Dasovic, who was our coach at the time, decided then he was going to turn me into a centre-back.
I played the second half of the season there and was eventually named the competition’s defensive player of the year.
The university system gives you a really good way of having a Plan B. If soccer doesn’t work out because of injury or for any other reason, you have a degree to fall back on.
To be truthful, most of us in the SFU squad were focused firstly on our soccer and then on our studies. But you have to maintain a certain GPA to remain eligible, so there is a balancing act between playing, travelling, and keeping up with your studies – which is very important.
The goal was always soccer first and seeing if I could make a living from it. Then the studies would take me from there.
The pathway into professional soccer for university players has changed considerably since the start of the Canadian Premier League.
In the past, a university player offered a professional opportunity often had to gamble on it and give up university soccer, knowing there was no guarantee it would work out.
The CPL-U SPORTS pathway means players no longer have to make that hard decision.
They can enter the draft and, if selected, attend pre-season training with a CPL club and compete for one of the three U SPORTS contract places available on each team.
Those players are paid to play professionally, but do not count towards the league’s salary cap. They also remain eligible to return to university when their contracts normally end in August, although a contract can be extended through the rest of the CPL season.
Clubs are not required to give those players a certain number of minutes, as they are with under-21 players, so it is an attractive option for clubs too.
This season, we signed three players through the CPL-U SPORTS pathway: Henri Godbout, Matheus de Souza, and Nicolas Nadeau. It was great to have them involved.
It gives players the chance to prove themselves at the professional level without giving up their education or university career.
There are also just far more opportunities to transition from university to playing professionally in Canada now, because before the CPL, the only professional clubs here were the three Canadian MLS teams. So players who could not secure one of those limited places generally had to chase opportunities in other non-Canadian leagues, which meant moving abroad.
Before joining SFU, I also studied and played U SPORTS soccer at the University of the Fraser Valley, and my goal was to get drafted through that pathway. But we didn’t have a brilliant season, and I transferred to SFU where thankfully, things worked out there.
Nick, our coach, also went from SFU to Vancouver FC to become assistant coach, and he brought me in for a trial after the good season I had last year.
I took my opportunity, but he played a big role in helping me get to where I am today, so I will always remember that.
At this time of year, university soccer is on my mind as students go back to school and the new seasons get underway.
The student-athletes will have been in pre-season since earlier in August, well before classes started again. The season is over by November, so it is very short, but it now provides a huge opportunity for the players who make the most of it.
One year on from being one of those university players, and with Vancouver FC we are hoping to make our own breakthrough this season.
We’re hoping to qualify for the playoff spots for the first time in the club’s history.
Saturday is a huge home game against Forge FC, our third game in eight days.
As always, we appreciate all of the support.
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– Kian Proctor is a 20-year-old Vancouver FC defender from Delta, who signed his first professional contract for the 2026 season after a standout year at SFU. He will be writing a weekly column this season, offering insight into himself and his new team.
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