Joel Harrison

SCHOOL: Burnaby Central FRESHMAN’S FUTURE: Michigan

The quickest way to judge just how incredible a soccer player Joel Harrison is?

That’s easy. Just look at his accomplishments in all of the sports he has dropped over the past couple of years en route to making the beautiful game his sole focus.

In March 2013, as a ninth-grader, he was named the top defensive player at the B.C. junior boys basketball championships despite the fact his Walnut Grove Gators placed fourth.

In August of that year, he set a new national standard in the pentathlon at the Canadian youth national track and field championships, winning four (100-metre hurdles, 1,000 metres, long jump and high jump) of the event’s five disciplines.

In November 2014, in his Grade 10 year with the Gators, Harrison improved on his second-place finish of the season before by winning the B.C. high school junior cross-country championship.

Hmm, must be a pretty accomplished soccer player to turn his back on all of that? Indeed he is. A stalwart in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ residency program, Harrison actually made his pro debut at age 16 last July when he not only suited up, but went on to play for the Whitecaps FC2 in a match in Houston.

“To be honest, that was quite a shock,” says Harrison. “I got called to the team three days before their road trip to come along and I thought it was great to just sit on the bench.”

That was until head coach Alan Koch told him at halftime he would be entering the game.

“It was a smaller stadium and the crowd was just going crazy,” says Harrison.“What an incredible experience to be thrown out there into that kind of environment.”

Of course, there is so much more in store for Harrison next season.

That’s when he begins his collegiate soccer career in Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan, one of the most storied and successful collegiate athletic programs in the world.

“The family flew down with me, and I remember driving out from the airport, it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere,” Harrison says. “Then you see the Big House (Michigan Stadium, with a capacity of 110,000), the big block M and it’s just‘Wow.’For the next two days I just toured the facilities and it was unreal, unlike anything I had ever seen. Joining that program next year is a dream come true.”

Actually, there are still others for Harrison, who will also enrol in the Michigan’s challenging school of engineering.

“My goal is still to play professionally,” he says. “I want to play for the Whitecaps and the Canadian national team. And going to college is going to be a good stepping stone to one day break into MLS.”

So that’s why he dropped all of those other sports.