Jed Davies will have a different view than he's used to when the Halifax Wanderers U21 team takes to the pitch against Wrexham A.F.C. in Charlottetown, PEI, for an International Summer Series match on Wednesday, July 9.
Last year, Davies coached the U21 team, but now calls Charlottetown home, where he coaches both the men’s and women’s soccer teams at the University of Prince Edward Island.
"I knew I always wanted to work with the 16 to 23 (age) brackets, an area that I really enjoy working with,” says Davies.
Davies has plenty of experience with that age group from his time with Halifax, where he was a first-team assistant coach and head of youth development. He also spent nearly a decade as head of player development for the Ottawa St. Anthony Futuro Soccer Academy.
“(Ottawa) is where my passion, my obsession began over the last 10 years, trying to help players bridge the gap between youth and pro. And more so in North America, I think that gap is monumental,” says Davies. “In Europe, you’re playing, you’re training with the first team, but then you’re playing with the U-23s year-round.”
While he was part of the Wanderers' plan to plug that gap with the establishment of the development teams, he gets to help narrow that gap for young players at UPEI now. One thing Davies says would make him 'a bit upset' was when his teams would send players back to university for studies and soccer, but their skills would decline over the school year.
“The more questions I asked, the more I just felt like we’re completely neglecting 18 to 21-year-olds,” says Davies.
The UPEI Panthers coach points out that the university programs only run from August to November, limiting how much players get out on the field. For rookies, opportunities are even more rare. Since Davies took on the new role in January, he’s had four training sessions a week all year.
“The style of play, the training and the training methodology that we used at the Wanderers is the same that we’re now using here (at UPEI),” says the coach.
From his time with the Wanderers, Davies also had a lot of experience coaching Atlantic University Sport athletes in the first two editions of the International Summer Series.
“That U23 team and the U21 team, especially the second year, it was an AUS all-star team,” reflects Davies.
The former Wanderers coach was impressed with how the U21 team performed last summer against the U21 teams of Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town, especially considering the calibre of some of the individuals on these teams. Davies says that each of the Summer Series matches last year was worth 200 hours of training.
“I kept dreaming, like, what if I got a group like this for a year, a whole year? What would it look like? The university program allows for that to happen,” reflects Davies.
“I think Atlantic Canada in general has a need for hard working, humble, soccer players. That was also part of the joy of working with the Wanderers, especially the under-21s. The cultural piece of us playing against Ipswich, Middlesbrough, Holstein Kiel, and not one player was thinking ‘well I’m too good to play here’. In fact, the opposite was true,” Davies says, adding that he couldn’t believe he got to coach a team like last year’s squad.
The International Summer Series returns to Charlottetown again this summer, giving local players an eye-opening experience and a chance to see high-calibre play in their own backyard.
“Hockey dominates. But now you get to finally see something that looks like a professional setup, and you can dream again,” says Davies. “And there's nothing more powerful than seeing someone who's from the same part of the country you're from.”
“They see Wanderers’ first team as an incredible representation of professional football, but they also see the U21s’ absolute sense of pride that we get to represent the highest level of soccer in Atlantic Canada.”
For the players playing for the Wanderers in the series this year, it’s a valuable experience no matter where each individual’s career takes them.
“Playing in front of fans is part of…the list of ingredients for how to produce a professional soccer player.”
The International Summer Series visits Charlottetown on Saturday, July 6, at UPEI Field. Tickets are available by clicking here.