Kings County pros practising at home
MacRae, Shaffelburg hit the pitch for off-season training
Some might call them the Sid and Nate of soccer.
Like Cole Harbour's famous hockey duo of Crosby and MacKinnon, professional soccer players Andrew MacRae and Jacob Shaffelburg, from Kings County, are spending part of their off-seasons training together at the Credit Union Rec Complex — more familiarly known as the soccer dome — in Kentville.
Shaffelburg, a forward, joined Toronto FC of Major League Soccer this past season. MacRae, a keeper, played for the Tulsa Roughnecks in the USL Championship League.
Shaffelburg is from Port Williams and MacRae is from Coldbrook, and both went through the Valley United program. MacRae actually coached Shaffelburg at one point.
They said getting together to practice during the off-season –—which in soccer is barely two months — just made sense.
“It's my first off-season, so I'm getting used to what I'm supposed to do in that period,” Shaffelburg said. “Trying to keep fit and keep my touch on the ball.”
That's not the case for MacRae, who played for Acadia University before joining the Ottawa Fury of the North American Soccer League for two seasons before moving to Larne of Championship league in Northern Ireland for a year before signing with Tulsa.
“I've been doing this for six years, so I know where I need to be when I go into the preseason,” he said.
Their two positions work well for training.
“He needs to work on his shooting basically, and I have to save it,” he said. "We put ourselves in different situations from different areas of the field and see lots of live situations.”
But don't expect to see videos of them running up Citadel Hill like MacKinnon and Crosby.
“I still have to do it, but I don't know about that hill,” laughed Shaffelburg. “I'll go for a run and get some fitness in.”
MacRae said it's different for soccer players.
“I have a month and a half or two months of pre-season, so you really get most of your in-season fitness during the pre-season,” he said. “I'll go for runs, but it's not necessarily as important as staying sharp on the ball.”
They first got together two weeks ago, and try to get out as often as possible.
“It was good, I was getting to see close to a hundred shots in 45 minutes,” MacRae said.
“And half of them went in,” chirped Shaffelburg.
“I'll take half," MacRae retorted.
On this day Shaffelburg was receiving the ball from MacRae on the keeper's left at about 18 yards, controlling the kick and then moving in for a shot.
“That would have gone in on a real net,” Shaffelburg yelled after some shots toward the indoor net.
He said his focus in the offseason is on “clinical finishing. I always grew up just hitting it as hard as I could, rather than placing it. I know in certain situations in practice and in games if I can just calm down and place it instead of just hitting it I might get a better result.”
Dwight MacLeod, the executive director of Valley District Soccer, said seeing two players from the Valley playing at the pro level and back home practising is good for the local game.
“We're extremely proud of watching these kids grow up and playing in the district,” he said. “Now they come home and into the building to train, and there will be some kids, you'll hear them whispering 'that's Andrew' and 'that's Jake.'”
He said the two are “downto-earth guys... we haven't seen anyone else in the area do this in the sport.”