Tommy Wheeldon Jr. was enjoying the calm of Maui with his family, thawing out after a long CPL season with a cold conclusion, when the call came.
It was Canadian men's national team manager Jesse Marsch, asking if Wheeldon Jr. would join his staff for the team's January camp in Irvine, Calif. It was an easy yes.
"Humbled," Wheeldon Jr. told CPLsoccer.com, "to get the invite from Jesse, especially straight from him."
Still, Wheeldon Jr. wasn't entirely sure what to expect. In the first camp of a World Cup year, a home World Cup year no less, he initially took it with a grain of salt when Marsch described the level of involvement he was expecting from his guest coaches.
Instead, during the 10-day camp, which culminated in a 1-0 friendly victory over Guatemala at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Jan. 17, Wheeldon Jr. was greeted with what he called an "open door policy," given a window into crucial World Cup planning, and expected to provide input and ideas.
"I don't think there's many, if any, high-performance coaches in the world that would allow outsiders in as part of it," Wheeldon Jr. told CanPL.ca. "I think that's where Jesse is so much different than anybody I've met."
Bringing in a rotating cast of Canadian voices to supplement his coaching staff has been a key initiative and strategy of Marsch's tenure thus far. Past camps have featured Pacific FC head coach James Merriman, former Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar, and former Forge player and assistant David Edgar, among others.
Alongside Wheeldon Jr., this camp's coaching staff included Atlético Ottawa goalkeeper coach Romuald Peiser, Simcoe Country Rovers co-owner and former national team player Doneil Henry, and Norvan FC head coach Andrew Peat.
For Wheeldon Jr., it was a special opportunity to work with some of the country's top players, like national team veterans Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea, and get unique insight into what sets them apart. During the camp, Wheeldon Jr. served as a referee for an intra-squad match, and received a taste of Laryea's trademark intensity. Thankfully, Wheeldon Jr. said, he was probably spared the full experience owing to the fact that Laryea was mic'd up during the training session.
"I'm glad he had the microphone, because he probably toned it down a bit," said Wheeldon Jr. with a grin.
Early in the week, Laryea approached the coach's table and made it clear to Wheeldon Jr. that as a newcomer to the national team, he had to join in the time-honoured newbie tradition of singing in front of the whole team. In fact, Wheeldon Jr. was up first. The Cavalry coach, ever the showman, sang The Proclaimers' famous ballad 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles),' but, in his signature fashion, he added a twist.
"Instead of singing, 'I would walk', [I sang] 'I would press,'" said Wheeldon Jr.
The Cavalry coach was far from the only newcomer to Canada camp, which also included three Canadian Premier League players, Atlético Ottawa's Noah Abatneh, Halifax Wanderers' Tiago Coimbra and Inter Toronto's Shola Jimoh. It was the latest evidence of what Wheeldon Jr. calls Marsch's keen understanding of the Canadian football landscape and the importance of its national league.
"He knows it's part of the football food chain, but in turn trusting us [coaches] to understand him and what he's trying to get, so that when we go back to our clubs, we impart some of that," said Wheeldon Jr., "and we also keep playing our U-21 players and moving them forward, so hopefully they go to more established leagues and eventually end up in the Canadian [national team] system."
A perfect example of the end product is Joel Waterman, a former Cavalry player with whom Wheeldon Jr. was reunited at this camp. After playing his first professional season under Wheeldon Jr. with Cavalry FC in 2019, Waterman became a regular in MLS between the Chicago Fire and CF Montréal, with 15 caps and counting for the men's national team. Seeing each other at national team camp was a "full-circle moment" for the pair, signified by a special kit swap years in the making.
Having been gifted one of Waterman's kits from the Qatar World Cup as a thank you for all he did for his career, Wheeldon Jr. brought a special Cavalry FC kit for Waterman in the colour of the one the defender wore in his last match for the club — the 2019 CPL Final.
Unfortunately, due to a minor injury, Waterman didn't get the opportunity to play against Guatemala. But if there is anything that gives Wheeldon Jr. confidence that Canada can make a statement at the 2026 World Cup, it is how every player at the camp stepped up and embraced Marsch's vision for how he wants the team to play.
"It didn't matter who was on the pitch, they all played the same way," said Wheeldon Jr.
"[Marsch is] fearless about whether they're playing the World Cup holders in Argentina or whether they're playing Guatemala, he'll approach every team, the same, 'we're going to go and impart ourselves on them'."
After his ten days in California with Canada, Wheeldon Jr. has since returned to the cold of Calgary to prepare for the 2026 Canadian Premier League season. But he does so with plenty of new insight and ideas, as to how he can push the envelope with Cavalry this year.