Aymar Sigue wants a chance to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
It was a major reason why the St. Albert soccer player decided to leave the FC Edmonton reserve team for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC residency program.
Sigue signed with the Whitecaps to take advantage of an opportunity he’s never had before.
“I think just being with different players and coaches, and I’ll also get used to the atmosphere like not always being comfortable,” Sigue says. “Getting used to adversity.”
Last year was the strikers’ first time playing with the FC Edmonton reserves.
“It was a very successful season,” Sigue says. “We played versus a lot of older guys, older teams, and I think we did very well.”
Sigue scored six goals in 14 games with Edmonton and enjoyed his time playing on the reserve team.
“It was a great experience playing with a lot of very good players,” he says. “And we had great coaches, Jeff (Paulus) also being from St. Albert – it was good.”
Paulus is head coach of the FC Edmonton reserve squad. Paulus and his coaching staff were the ones who gave the young player the news about the Whitecaps’ residency offer.
“(The Whitecaps) contacted my coaches first,” Sigue says. My coach, Jeff, he was happy for me.”
“We would have offered him a second amateur contract but he decided to join the Whitecaps instead and we support his decision wholeheartedly,” said Edmonton FC general manager Tom Leip.
Sigue says the Vancouver offer was likely the result of seeing him play on the provincial team at the 2012 All Stars U-16 boys’ competition held in Mt. Pearl, N.L. in July.
“I think they saw me when I went with the provincial team to Newfoundland and they called me a few weeks later,” Sigue says.
Alberta finished fourth at the all-star national championship.
Sigue competed in another championship over the summer, when he was named to Canada’s U15 squad and played in the Copa Mexico De Naciones Sub-15.
Part of the reason Sigue is excited to join the Whitecaps’ residency program is the exposure it will provide.
“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity,” he says. “We’ll be travelling to the U.S. a lot so I’ll be getting seen by even more coaches. It’ll be a good experience for me.”
Last year Vancouver Whitecaps FC became the first Canadian soccer club to join the United States Soccer Development Academy. Montreal Impact FC became the second Canadian club to enter the U.S. youth academy system in 2012.
Sigue comes from a family of soccer fans and while they support his decision to join the Whitecaps, his parents don’t want to see his education suffer.
“They’re a bit worried because I’m leaving in the middle of the semester, so they’re worried about school, but they also think it’s good for my soccer,” says Sigue.
The member of the 2011 SAPEC junior high basketball champion Vincent J. Maloney Marauders expects to join the Whitecaps by the end of the year. The Grade 11 student will transfer from St. Joseph High School in Edmonton to Burnaby Central Secondary School, located just outside Vancouver.
It can be daunting to make a move like that at age 15, but Sigue, along with another player, will billet with a local family in Burnaby. Having friends who are already there will also make the transition easier.
“I have a former teammate, Francesco, that I played with and some of the other guys are from Alberta too, so I know them.”
