Soccer is a sport that’s much more complex than it seems. If you want to understand the game, you’ll have to watch a match or two in order to learn some of what’s going on. Similar to life, games are like journeys: complex, valuable, and always telling of a team’s growth.
For UFV men’s soccer’s fifth-year midfielder Gurmaan Jhaj, the journey goes back even farther than most. Jhaj has called soccer his sport for well over a decade.
“I’ve been playing for as long as I can remember,” said Jhaj.
“My dad liked soccer, so that was kind of the first sport he put me into. They always show me a little picture of my first time at soccer.”
From there, Jhaj was set on his number one sport.
Playing soccer as a kid is great, but young players quickly have to decide how far they’re going to go and how competitive they want to be. At a certain point, many players take different directions. Players get recruited earlier than in other sports, and the drive necessary to make that happen ramps up at a relatively young age. Jhaj’s opportunity to make this choice came at the age of 15.
“That’s when you really take it seriously. You commit to it to an even greater extent. I was kind of in and out of the [Vancouver] Whitecaps programs from a young age, so that’s when I kind of knew, ‘Hey, I can go to school for this. I can go further with soccer.’”
As a prospect with a bright future, the question of where and how to continue Jhaj’s soccer career was one with many possible answers, but ultimately, he decided to stay close to home and join the Cascades.
“It was a little tough because I was looking at some schools in the States and maybe other schools in the conference, so it was pretty tough to finally come to it, but I already had friends here and I knew the coaches were great.”
Sometimes when high-level athletes play sports, they make it look easy. In reality, it takes a lot of adjustment and adaptation to to be able to play at a higher level, with most athletes needing to make significant changes to their training regiment and lifestyle. For Jhaj, one big challenge was adjusting to university/college soccer schedules and programs.
“Playing at the highest level in youth, you’re training maybe two or three times a week and then you have your one game on the weekend. When you come to university, you’re training every day and then you have games on the weekends. It’s definitely a step up.”
As a player, Jhaj has undergone remarkable growth.
“When I originally came to UFV I was kind of like a box-to-box midfielder, so I’d play all over the field, kind of work up and down. My first three years with UFV I played as a holding midfielder, so it was kind of a little bit of a change for me.”
Currently, he is closing in on the Canada West record books, tied for fifth all-time in penalty goals and attempts as well as 11th all-time for game-winning goals.
Jhaj attributes this to his experience in his fourth year, when he went back to his former position.
“In my fourth year I was able to transition further up the field into playing striker. It kind of just brought back the old days of just being able to go attack and kind of do my thing, so it worked out really well for the team and myself as well.”
Gurmaan’s competitive nature drives him to consistently strive for greatness on the soccer field, and that’s probably why he’s seen so much success in the last two years of his time at UFV.
This weekend the men’s team will be away, taking on UBC Okanagan on Sept. 28 before a clash with Thompson Rivers University the following day.
Image: UFV Athletics
