{"id":20465,"date":"2018-04-27T09:26:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T13:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20465"},"modified":"2018-04-27T09:26:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T13:26:24","slug":"aurora-fc-looking-to-make-a-mark-in-third-league-1-ontario-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-fc-looking-to-make-a-mark-in-third-league-1-ontario-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora FC looking to make a mark in third League 1 Ontario season"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the Jimmy Brennan era over, the Aurora FC are looking to move on under new leadership.
\nClose to three years after ex-pro Brennan brought semi-professional soccer to town in the form of both a men\u2019s and women\u2019s League1 Ontario club, the executive director stepped down in December to take advantage of new opportunities.
\nBrennan was also key in rebranding the Aurora Youth Soccer Club to its current status as Aurora FC, putting both the semi-pro and minor clubs under one umbrella.
\nHe left behind a men\u2019s side still looking for answers, while their female counterparts enter the 2018 season as a .500 club on the up-and-up.
\nHowever, men\u2019s head coach Derek O\u2019Keeffe has high hopes in turning over a new leaf as a developmental program.
\n\u201cIn regards to the way we run League1, and our approach for player recruitment, this has changed,\u201d said O\u2019Keeffe. \u201cThe way we are running the program this year is very youth orientated. League1 was originally created to promote young exciting Canadian players and a pathway for them to make it to the professional game.\u201d
\n O\u2019Keeffe said the league must \u201cfocus on youth and promoting players from within.\u201d
\n\u201cYes we have recruited from universities this year, but not as much as previous campaigns\u2026 we are focusing on talented youth who we believe need to be given their shot.\u201d
\n\u201cThis may take time, but if we want to make Canadian soccer better we must bring our young players through.\u201d
\nLeading the way for the men\u2019s side will be Morey Doner, the club captain, whom O\u2019Keeffe said brings \u201cexcellent leadership skills\u201d to the squad.
\nPlayers to watch out for also include Max Ferrari, a \u201ctalented midfielder who is box to box and has a sharp eye to the goal,\u201d as well as Karamvir Mehmi, whose \u201celectric speed\u201d can be a \u201chandful for defenders.\u201d
\nWith a strong shift in the program, O\u2019Keeffe also wants to acknowledge the leadership behind the curtains in the budding club, like technical director Dave DiPlacido and assistant director Marco Campia, who he said have done \u201ca tremendous job organizing the program.\u201d
\nDespite a lacklustre 2017 season on the field, both Aurora sides have already proved their worth as a developmental program: the women\u2019s team sent twelve Aurora players to the NCAA\u2019s division I this past fall, highlighted by the play of both Victoria Pickett and Sarah Stratigakis, competing in the prestigious Big Ten conference.
\nPickett, a native of Aurora, joined the Wisconsin Badgers for the 2017 season before being named to the United Soccer Coaches All-Midwest Region First Team and the Conference All-Big Ten Second Team.
\nStratigakis, a key member of the Canadian senior women\u2019s team since joining the roster early last year, plied her trade with the Michigan Wolverines while being named to the Conference All-Big Ten Second Team as well.
\nOn the men\u2019s side, defender Justin Broome joined the American collegiate top ranks with Stetson University of the Atlantic Sun division, notching a goal in eight games as a starter for the Hatters.
\nThe men open their season this Saturday at home in hosting Master\u2019s Futbol in Toronto, while the women will host Vaughan Azzurri in the first half of a doubleheader.
\nBoth clubs have moved their home turf to the new state-of-the-art field at Stewart Burnett Park for the 2018 season, a move O\u2019Keeffe said the club is \u201cdelighted\u201d about.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Jimmy Brennan era over, the Aurora FC are looking to move on under new leadership.
\nClose to three years after ex-pro Brennan brought semi-professional soccer to town in the form of both a men\u2019s and women\u2019s League1 Ontario club, the executive director stepped down in December to take advantage of new opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-26-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5k5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 04:48:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}