French ready to return for the Pronghorns

By Dale Woodard on September 17, 2021.

Having lost their 2020 Canada West season to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been a long time from game action for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s soccer team.

For Nolan French it has been even longer than that.

In fact, it goes back to 2018 when the veteran goaltender’s season came to a halt with a torn ACL and MCL.

Nearly two years after they last played, the Horns open their Canada West season at the University of Lethbridge Stadium when the Mount Royal University Cougars come calling at 2:15 p.m. The Pronghorns women’s soccer team opens the day at noon when they take on the MacEwan Griffins.

On Thursday night at the U of L Stadium, not even the latest COVID-19 news from the province about more restrictions and more uncertainty was enough to dull French’s enthusiasm.

“It’s so special,” he said. “Even today there was a chance our practice could get cancelled. But once we heard it was on I was buzzing and happy to be out. I haven’t personally played in a couple years because of injury, so I honestly can’t wait for Saturday. It has been so long. It’s all I’ve been looking forward to, finally getting out there.”

COVID cancelled last season, but it also played a bit of a factor in this year’s preparations.

“Camp has been kind of unusual in that we’ve had people coming in with all kinds of different starting points depending on where they were,” said Pronghorns head coach Randy Bardock. “So that has made it interesting. In the lack of availability of exhibition games, it’s been a preseason we have never experienced before. But through the whole preseason all we have talked about is focussing on what we can control and they have done a great job of that up to this point.”

It’s a young Horns squad that comes in this year with 11 first-years.

“There are three from last year who are first years,” said Bardock. “So more than half the team is technically first year this year. It’s exciting for them and we’ll see how they respond to that. It was a tough decision for our fifth years. We encouraged them that they were done their schooling and it’s time to move on. We had individual talks about it and I think they got it, understood it and they are ready for the real world. It’s now some of these other guys’ chance to step up.”

Minimal exhibition time aside, early indications have shown ample depth.

“In our last exhibition game we made nine subs and there was no let up and there were no mental errors or things like that,” said Bardock.

“Everybody was sharp when they went in there, so that’s huge for us because we haven’t played in almost two years and a lot of the guys haven’t played back-to-back games, so how are their bodies going to hold up over the season?”

From his view in the crease, French said his younger teammates have looked good so far.

“I do think we look better this year. We definitely have a shot of playoffs.”

And the fifth-year goaltender from Calgary is happy to lead.

“They bug me a lot because clearly I’m a lot older than the rest of them, but I have no issue answering any questions,” he said. “I’m here to help them as much as I can. I’m trying to be a teacher, so it’s nice practice.”

The first test lies in the Cougars Saturday afternoon.

“They are going to be an extremely strong team,” said Bardock. “If they don’t come in first in our division I will be surprised. So it’s a great test for us to see where we are. It allows us to see what areas we need to work on in areas we are competing with them at because I think that will be a huge sign for us. I think it’s a great way to start.”

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