Friendships at forefront for U17 Atlético Ottawa Juniors chasing first championship in final OPDL league game

By Dan Plouffe

Tahlia Aird-Greaves and Brooklyn Siba-Maheu have been soccer teammates for a decade since they were seven years old. Now set to play the final Ontario Player Development League regular season game of their careers – with a chance to win their first provincial championship with the Atlético Ottawa Juniors – they are dealing with a big mix of emotions.

They’re feeling calm, yet intense. Certainly very proud and excited, but there’s another strong emotion lurking too as the end of their youth soccer careers approach.

“It’s pretty sad. Really sad,” signals Siba-Maheu, who’s played on two teams (including an older age group) with Aird-Greaves for the past three years, making countless trips to Toronto together in the process. “My teammates that I’ve had for years I won’t be playing with anymore, and my club and the culture… It’s a lot to miss.”

“I’ve had so much fun playing with my teammates,” echoes Aird-Greaves, “and I just hope we make the best of it this year.”

The storybook final chapter the 7-1 AOJ under-17 girls have been dreaming of is one match away from fruition. They’ve got a one-point advantage over second-place Woodbridge, so a road victory over 1-6-1 North Mississauga in their season finale Saturday afternoon would clinch the banner.

AOJ was not favoured to be in this position. The club’s U17s “surprised some people” with a solid third-place finish last season, recalls coach Pat Boyle, whose team had a half-dozen returning players this year.

Boyle says the squad was hungry to reach for the very top, while still embracing an underdog mentality.

“They approach every challenge as a challenge,” he highlights, speaking after AOJ escaped from a tied game with Pickering in the 77th minute to emerge with 4-1 victory on a sunny late-September day where the temperature hit 28°C.

“Take today, it is hot, and they grinded and they suffered for their craft,” Boyle notes. “The team has an identity, and they believe in it. Everybody plays their part.”

AOJ had a good, but not great, start to the season. They comfortably qualifying for the OPDL premier division in a three-way tie for third place in east division play at 4-2-1, but the players got into excellent training habits that have since paid off.

“Try to be better 1% better every day – I think if you approach it that way, and you don’t always look at what the end goal is going to be, you tend to stack up a lot of good days,” Boyle indicates. “You just focus on the process and the things that we can control – clean performances, execute well, win your duels, stay together as a team, fight as a team, and just refuse to be outworked.

“It’s a little cliché, but there’s a reason why it’s a cliché, it’s because that’s usually a pretty good recipe for success.”

AOJ set the tone with a 6-0 blowout win over Oakville to open their premier schedule. Their next biggest win was a 5-0 triumph over Ottawa South United, despite having lost to the crosstown Force in both Cup and east division play. AOJ now has shutouts in five of their eight premier games.

“They’ve been firing for this whole premier season,” Boyle underlines. “It’s exciting when all the hard work is rewarded, and hopefully we can have another good performance [Saturday] and we can finish on top.”

Long-time teammates showcase connection in key moments

AOJ set themselves up for the shot at the title by surviving a testy encounter with last year’s champions on Sept. 26 at Franco-Cité high school. Following an opening goal by AOJ’s Sophia Tsang and an equalizer from Pickering shortly after halftime, the tie game persisted deep into the second half.

But AOJ’s #1 and #2 scorers, Siba-Maheu and Aird-Greaves rose to the occasion in their team’s quest for the three-point win.

Aird-Greaves contributed to a gorgeous set sequence off a throw-in to free Kalina Ghie for a diagonal cross to Siba-Maheu, who leapt up and headed home the critical goal.

“I really knew that the next time I got a ball in the air, it was going in,” Siba-Maheu recounts. “I pride myself on scoring a lot of headers and I already missed two, so I was like, ‘The next one is mine. I know I’m scoring no matter what.’”

Next, Aird-Greaves brought the ball up with the pace that’s made her a standout sprint hurdler and long jumper at Gisèle-Lalonde high school, and sprung Siba-Maheu on a break for an insurance goal three minutes later.

“Me and Tahlia have been playing together since we were seven, so I knew she was gonna play it and I was ready,” explains the premier league’s leading scorer who has 15 goals in 17 games overall, before sharing that another part they’d practiced didn’t materialize.

“We always plan our celebrations, like we’re gonna go to the corner flag and do something cool, but you’re so excited and you’re so happy for your teammate and proud that you just start screaming and running through the hugs,” she adds. “Nobody cares that everyone’s like dying of sweat and stuff. All that just goes out the window.”

Aird-Greaves showed great persistence for AOJ’s final goal and her 10th of the season. Moments after getting tangled up and tackled American football-style, Aird-Greaves had her first shot blocked, but managed to poke another shot towards goal on second effort before falling to the ground.

“I was getting trampled everywhere, and my mom’s motto is, ‘Show them by putting the ball in the back of the net,’ and that is what I did,” smiles Aird-Greaves. “We knew we could have done better (earlier in the game), and we showed it at the end.”

It won’t be too long until Aird-Greaves and Siba-Maheu will be joining NCAA soccer programs at Kent State University and the University of Idaho respectively next school year, but first they want to finish in the best way possible by celebrating an Ontario league title (and a later Charity Shield playoff crown would only make it sweeter). Siba-Maheu says consistency will be king.

“Our motto is never too high, never too low. We always try to be humble. We call it the champion mindset. That’s what we link everything back to,” outlines the team captain. “Really, it’s all about enjoying the times you have with your teammates. We’re performing well, and if we keep just doing what we do, everything will be OK.”

Boyle, who coached Aird-Greaves and Siba-Maheu when they were nine years old, loves seeing strong relationships like theirs form between teammates, and he’s sure that connection will stay strong for years even as they head to different destinations in the future.

“That’s what the sport’s all about,” Boyle reflects. “It’s fun to see them grow up into really amazing and really accomplished young ladies. I’ve got nothing but respect for everything that they do, for the time and effort they put in.

“They’ll never forget these days growing up, grinding, showing up every day at the park, and competing every day against each other, with each other. You make lifelong friendships. That’s the beauty of sport.”