As the Canadian Premier League calendar turns to July, Atlético Ottawa sit at the top of two different tables.
With 28 points through 13 games, they are at the top of the league standings -- one point ahead of Ontario rivals Forge FC. With 3,916 domestic U-21 minutes, they also lead the league in playing time for young Canadians.
Each Canadian Premier League club is required to play U-21 domestic Canadian players for at least 2,000 minutes each season to be playoff eligible. But as they move well above that threshold, and to a total that is already a single-season club record midway through the campaign, Atlético Ottawa's young players continue to play crucial roles for the league leader.
The team is striking an important balance, playing at an elite level, while also providing key and consistent opportunities for young Canadian players.
"Ultimately, everybody that's playing right now has earned their spot, and deserved their spot," said Atlético Ottawa General Manager J.D. Ulanowski.
Atleti's youngsters have been particularly trusted across the team's backline. Following a leg fracture for veteran defender Amer Didić on May 3, head coach Diego Mejía has turned to an incredible young back three, one generally centred by 20-year-old Noah Abatneh, with 21-year-old Loïc Cloutier on the left, and either 17-year-old Sergei Kozlovskiy, or 21-year-old Tyr Duhaney-Walker on the right.
"I feel the trust that he has towards us, that makes me trust him even more, because he's a coach that takes risks, he put three young guys in the backline, since the first game, and he just sticks with it," said Kozlovskiy. "It goes well right now, and we're happy, but I respect him very much for doing this. Not every coach is capable of putting young guys and trusting them, and when you feel that trust from your coach, it just gives you more confidence to play on the field."
For Ulanowski, this was always how he envisioned building a team, providing opportunities for talented young Canadian players within the framework of a heavily successful squad. He credits ownership for trusting in that vision, and Mejía for his ability to execute on it. With the way the league has been a proven platform for young players to progress their careers, it is becoming easier to sell those players on the opportunity that turning pro in the CPL provides.
"It's what the CPL is doing," added Ulanowski. "It's showing that it has a place in the ecosystem, and you're seeing it kind of more and more. But again, every player has kind of a different setup, different background story."
There are players like 21-year-old Gabriel Antinoro, who in his third season with Atlético Ottawa is playing the best football of his career. Abatneh, 20, also in his third CPL season, who joined the club from York United this off-season and has also taken a significant step forward.
The team has also given professional debuts to Cloutier, Kozlovskiy and 18-year-old wing-back Joaquim Coulanges. All three came through the CF Montréal system and are now getting the opportunity to play professionally in the CPL. Then there is Ralph Khoury, an 18-year-old forward on a development contract who, like Walker, worked his way through the club's affiliation with Ottawa South United in Ligue1 Québec.
Of course, what Atleti have also done well is making sure that there is a strong foundation of experience around those young players. Guys like Alberto Zapater, Juan Castro and Manny Aparicio form a leadership core that the team's less experienced players can lean on in tough moments, or to keep them grounded when things are going well as they have been this season.
"I think we've got the balance right and surrounded [the young players], we know they're talented players, but we need to kind of surround them with those older guys to make sure they're in the right environment to succeed," said Ulanowski.
One particularly important veteran to the success of Atleti's back-line has been 32-year-old Captain Nate Ingham in goal.
"It's a lot to ask of your senior goalkeeper, captain, guy that's been at the club the longest now, to have a bunch of 19, sometimes 17, 20-year-olds play in front of you," said Ulanowski. "Have guys that are playing as wing-backs that have never played wing-back before, guys making their professional debuts, like that's a lot to ask."
But Ingham has embraced the leadership and mentorship role fully, and his ability to not only make sure that the Ottawa backline are where they should be, but bail them out when they aren't, has been critical.
"He helps us so much," said Abatneh. "The communication skills that he has, the leadership that he has, the mindset he has to always keep us focused, whether it be in training and our games. And yeah, not just Nate, Manu [Aparicio], Coque [Castro], Ballou [Tabla], Sam [Salter], everybody's helping us young players out. And I think that's what's making us successful so far."
Abatneh, who has been playing in the middle of a back three for the first time in his career, is thriving in Ottawa's system. He has grown into a key leader at the back, while also progressing in his on-ball ability and defensive organization.
"I think every aspect of my game has improved with Diego, and I think all of the other players on the team could say the same thing," he says.
For Ottawa's young group of defenders, they have also been allowed to make mistakes on the job, without having to worry about losing their spot in the team. While there might have been some growing pains at first, Mejía has clearly been rewarded for his faith in recent weeks. Atleti did not allow a single league goal against in four matches during the month of June.
"Even though we were winning games at the beginning of the season, we were conceding a lot of goals, which was kind of frustrating for us as a defence, and also Nate as well, just the backline in general," says Abatneh. "So the fact that now we're keeping clean sheets, improving a lot defensively, I think we're proud of it, and we're not done. We want to keep going. We want to keep winning, keep getting more clean sheets."
The pressure is only going to increase the further they get into the season, and the closer to potential silverware. On Tuesday, Atleti travel to York Lions Stadium for the second leg of their Canadian Championship quarter-final against York United. They currently lead 2-1, looking to reach the semi-final stage for the first time in club history.
But so far, Atlético Ottawa's young players have aced every test, and many of them look primed to graduate to an even higher level in the future.
