FORMER SPARTAN HAMILTON PLAYING LIKE A PRO

Paul Hamilton

MEN’S SOCCER
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
PAUL HAMILTON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORMER SPARTAN HAMILTON PLAYING LIKE A PRO

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Former Trinity Western men’s soccer defender and the 2009-10 CIS Player of the Year Paul Hamilton is living his dream of being a professional soccer player.

Hamilton signed with FC Edmonton, a professional team that plays in the newly formed North American Soccer League (NASL), last spring but the team didn’t officially enter the league until this year. So, on April 9, the former Spartan played in his first ever professional game in FC Edmonton’s first league match.

The Calgary, Alta. product, who played three years at TWU and helped lead the Spartans to a CIS silver medal in 2008 and a CIS bronze medal in 2009, started at centre-back on the road against Fort Lauderdale, played the full 90 minutes and was instrumental in guiding Edmonton to a 2-1 victory.

“Playing in my first game was an unbelievable feeling,” said Hamilton, who dressed for one game when he was with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2009 but was an unused sub. “It felt like a long time coming and it is something that I have been working towards my whole life.”

Since leaving Trinity Western after 2009 fall season, Hamilton had a tryout with Torquay United, a League Two team in England, in February 2010 but was unsuccessful and returned to Canada looking for a team. Shortly after coming home, Hamilton was offered a tryout with fledgling FC Edmonton in April 2010 and made the squad.

The team, awaiting entry into the NASL in 2011, played a number of exhibition games last summer, most notably against former English Premier League side Portsmouth FC and against Chile’s most historically decorated club team, Colo-Colo.

“The summer was very good for me,” Hamilton said. “Although we did not yet play in the league it was a very productive summer. It helped me adapt to what being a professional soccer player is all about: playing every day, working out, and working on your fitness. The only thing I had to worry about was playing soccer.”

After a summer of exhibition games, the team remained together over the winter and trained indoors while preparing for its inaugural season in the NASL.

As for Hamilton, he hopes this is just the first step in what will be an extended professional career.

“In the next five years I want to be playing professionally somewhere overseas like England or Australia, or possibly in the MLS,” he said. “It’s my goal to make a long career out of playing soccer.”
 
But looking back at his time in Langley, he gives plenty of credit to Trinity Western for helping launch his career.

“I've always wanted to be a professional soccer player but after high school I was not ready to make that jump,” Hamilton said. “I came to TWU because I heard the soccer program was one of the best in the country. And one of the biggest things I learned at TWU was to be an on-field leader, not always by saying the right things, but by leading by example.  In my three years as a Spartan we, as a team, went through some difficult times, but always seemed to pull through. I learned how to persevere in my years as a Spartan.”

As Canada’s fourth professional soccer team, FC Edmonton will participate in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship this year for the first time when they will play Toronto FC of the MLS in a two-leg series, Apr. 27 and May 4, with the winner to meet the winner of the series between Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the Montreal Impact for the right to represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Trinity Western’s men’s soccer team recently completed its spring season after a disappointing fall campaign when the Spartans, after qualifying for the CIS national championship five years in a row, missed the playoffs for the first time since 2002. For the fall of 2011, the Spartans do expect to return 15 of the 16 players who played in the final regular season game of 2010.

-TW-

Last Updated: 2011-05-03
Author: Mark Janzen