Training Camp Opens, REDS Prepare To Be One Game Better
(FREDERICTON, NB) The UNB REDS women’s and men’s soccer teams opened their 2025 training camps on the weekend and are now preparing for their 2025 Atlantic University Sport seasons.
“I think it’s the most exciting day, really, other than the first game,” said Mackenzie Walsh, now a fifth-year member of UNB’s women’s team, ahead of Friday’s first training session. “Everyone is getting back into the swing of things here, it’s awesome.”
The men held their first training session on Sunday morning.
“I think everyone is excited to get to it,” said Simon Bisaillon, he too beginning his fifth season as a RED. “It’s the start of our push for the next three weeks to get right to that level to compete for the national title this year. We’re ready to put in the work to get there.”
The teams will be on the turf at UNB’s BMO Centre almost every day for the next three weeks, sometimes twice a day, preparing for their coming seasons.
Both will play pre-season games later this week.
The women travel to Moncton on Wednesday while the men visit Quebec City for exhibition contests against Laval and Sherbrooke on Thursday and Friday.
“The excitement and the buzz is awesome,” said Barry Morrison, head coach of the REDS’ men’s team. “This group is prepared, they’re focused, you can kind of tell that there has been a lot of work done over the summer and now there’s excitement to get going.”
Both REDS programs are coming off very good 2024 seasons.
The men went 4-4-4 (W-L-T) during the regular season before knocking off two higher seeds in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the AUS Championship tournament.
The REDS then pushed STFX to a second overtime before falling in the conference championship game.
The women finished the regular season in second place with a 9-2-1 record. They needed penalty kicks to win their semi-final match at the conference championship tournament before dropping a hard-fought championship game to Cape Breton.
“We’re continuing with much of the same kind of organization and set-up as we had as we competed late in the season last year, so we think we’re in a much stronger place as a starting point,” said Coach Morrison. “We hope to see a lot of that come to fruition earlier in the season this year and carry us through to an end-point similar to where we were last year, we want to improve on how we ended last year.”
“October 23rd is the day the playoffs start, and we want to be one of the six teams there,” said Jon Crossland, head coach of the REDS’ women’s team. “We talk a lot about championship habits, what do championship teams do to be successful and we try to get to that into as much of training as possible.”
“That’ll hopefully set us up to perform well,” added Crossland, named AUS Coach of the Year in 2024.
While strong regular seasons and deep playoff runs are the goals for both teams, they know what happens in these early days of training camp matters.
“It’s early, but as soon as we can we have to develop an identity and set the standards right away,” said Walsh. “We have the tools, and we have the personnel, we just have to live at that level that we can, every day. It’s got to be a conscious decision, and we have to put in the work.”
“It’s putting in that extra ten percent, going above where you’re expected to be on and off the field,” said Bisaillon. “It’s the little details. That’s what we need to focus on to get there.”
Both teams have seen key student-athletes graduate out of their programs, most notably All-Canadian striker Luke Rosettani.
While his talents will be missed, Bisaillon says there’s a wealth of experience on the REDS’ roster.
“We still have the core group here and a lot of us have played in important games, especially at the national championship, it wasn’t the same eleven playing the whole time, so we do have depth on this squad,” he said.
The REDS’ open their AUS regular seasons on home turf on Friday, August 29th when they host Acadia. The women kick-off at 5:00pm. The men will follow in a scheduled 7:30pm start.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY: Andy Campbell/UNB REDS