One of the teams most affected by the global pandemic (circa 2020 – 2022) on a local pitch level, the GSSC (Greater Sudbury Soccer Club) U18 Impact boys have emerged out the other side with flying colours.

Bringing together a collection of talent largely born in 2006, the squad that still includes at least a small handful of local lads who began this soccer journey together as U9 neophytes or so would hit the brick wall that was Covid just as they entered their prime development years.

Yet here we stand, four years later, many of this class preparing to join teams at the post-secondary ranks, closing out their youth career in style with five wins, a loss and a tie to show for their efforts to date as a contending outfit in the York Region Soccer League (YRSL) this summer.

A member since the start, centerback Graham Binks has dealt with the challenges of his particular era on a couple of fronts, also a key member of the Sudbury U18 Jam boys basketball teams in the winter months when his soccer participation dies down.

“The mentality is relatively the same,” said the 17 year-old who will return for a fifth year at Lockerby Composite before heading to Laurentian in 2025-2026. “For me, it’s about always being competitive, doing what it takes to win.”

With a bundle of years to adjust, Binks now transitions far more easily from one season to the next. “Basketball is all hands and soccer is the opposite,” he said. “After the first couple of weeks though, I get into it pretty good and it comes more easily.”

A key contributor in both sports, the talkative teen who has played his entire soccer career with his same-aged cousin Liam can make a case to pursue either option at the next level in twelve months time.

“For my height (6’3”) and build, I am likely a little more fitted for basketball,” he said. “And I also have a big wing span. But in soccer, I play centerback and you look at all of the centerbacks and they are all so tall.”

With former coach Evan Phillips stepping up to work with the Sudbury Cyclones, Nicholas Walker has jumped in to fill the void, making a least one fairly significant change from a tactical point of view.

“We are playing three across the back this year,” noted Binks. “When you look at our team as a whole, a lot of our stronger players are midfielders. With three across the back, we can push one more player up to midfield.”

Though he still finds himself on the inside of that back-line formation, there are adjustments that Binks and his fellow defenders are required to make.

“If someone gets passed around wide, the central back will go out and the person out wide will fill in,” he explained. “There are circumstances where that can happen, but for the most part, you keep your shape.”

That adjustment is likely even a little more taxing for teammate Sam Oduwole, a member of this crew for the past three years. A central midfielder in both 2022 and 2023, the Nigerian born 18 year-old was moved back one level at the request of the Laurentian University soccer staff, his destination come September and a program with whom he worked out through much of last winter.

“At center mid, I am not used to stepping up to the ball, usually,” said Oduwole. “At centerback, I step up a lot. That’s something I am trying to change and learning every day. Also, the one v one is much different than where you are playing center mid.”

It’s not the first time that the young man who will be studying Mechanical Engineering in the fall has been forced to alter his approach on the fly. At the age of 12, Oduwole would move, with his family, from Africa to Canada, settling in Sudbury soon thereafter. At the urging of his friend and schoolmate (Seth Gardner), the St Charles College graduate would join the Impact, dealing with a slightly different version of the game that he played back home.

“It’s a little bit more physical (in Nigeria) and the fields that we have there are not even grass – they’re sand,” said Oduwole. “Most people don’t have cleats.”

Hindsight being 20/20, this may not have been the worst thing for his game.

“When you are playing in sand, the ball moves way different than it does on grass,” he noted. “The touches are way harder to control on sand than on grass. If you’re used to playing on sand, it’s much easier to play on grass.”

With three straight lopsided wins to their credit, the U18 Impact lads will play host to Cavan FC this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at James Jerome (grass field), with Aurora providing the opposition one week later.

The balance of the U18 Impact roster features Nour Alzahran, Maximus Aziz, Adam Bilgasem, Sylas Corbiere, Liam Binks, Anthony De Sarno, Linden Devries, Connor Magnan, Zach Maybee, Rocko Purpura, Matthias Siemann, Roy Solarin, Christian Thamby, Chad Tullio, Niko Tuttle and Elie Yoma.

Meanwhile, the Impact U17 boys earned a hard fought split on the road last weekend, blanking Etobicoke Youth SC Energy 4-0 on Saturday and dropping a tough 1-0 decision to Gil Vicente FC the next day. Boston Ranger, Byron Nelson and Ibrahim Najem, with the final two goals, accounted for the Sudbury scoring, with Brennan Davie and Braxton Ragogna earning key assists on goals two and three while Théo Lefebvre recorded his second shutout of the summer.

A total of five yellow cards and one red card signalled a highly intense match versus Vicente, the top of the table team in the division. “It was an extremely physical game which could have easily boiled over if not for the excellent referee,” noted Impact head coach Nigel Croome.

The Sudbury U21 Cyclones women’s team chalked up a close win last weekend, edging the Oshawa Kicks 2-1 on a pair of tallies from Kiara Levac.

And closing things off, a shootout to the Impact U13 boys team which continues to evolve this summer under head coach Matt Cootes. Players on the team are: Carson Barr, Caiden Blais, Bernardo Bonacorsi, Neven Brujic, Blake Bubalo, Xavio Cootes, Paidraigh Courtney, Adrian Courtney, Max Dodge, Max Falcioni, Aaron Flanagan, Tyler Gaudreau, Vincent Ladouceur, Max Larche, Aiden MacQueen, An Mai, Matthew Michon, Mohammed Najem, Camden Poirier and Van Sakellaris.