The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's soccer team is closing out their 2019 preseason with some 'friendlies' in the Golden State.

Head coach John Antulov and his troops arrived in Southern California on the weekend and have spent the last few days doing some team bonding including running an eight kilometer hill in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

"Against Fresno Pacific, they will be quite a handful," Antulov states. " We will be looking at who the starting 11 for the season will be at that point. The other games will see us trying to get everyone in and getting a lot of minutes and go from there."

The Pack see their first match action  comes up this afternoon  when they meet up with the Apple Valley 2002's, who are the defending national champions for their age group.  Thursday, they will face the Fresno Pacific Thunderbirds (NCAA Div II).   They then follow up with a 'friendly' versus the College of the Seqouias Giants on Saturday (Aug 24).

For the first time this preseason, the WolfPack will have nearly  an entire contingent of players as new recruits Daniel Sagno (Burnaby, BC) and Stefan Kamner (Port Moody, BC) have joined the squad.  " We are about a month ahead of where we were last year in the area of development," Antulov says.  "A lot of guys were coming in here in September. The fact it is mid August and I pretty well have got the full squad here makes me really happy. It only bodes well for us before the season.."

Third year defender Josh Banton says the trip will be beneficial for team bonding. " Last year we weren't able to get in any exhibition matches due to the smoke. That really affected us. You can't build chemistry unless you are playing games.  Getting to know the boys on and off the field will really help us."

The rocky start to the 2018 season resulted in the WolfPack having to 'run the table' to make it into the post season.  Banton believes that the experience is something they can build on heading into this year. "We can take that end run and continue that form. We also know we can't start the season that same way. We can correct our past mistakes. That will hopefully result in an easier road to the playoffs."

Banton is one of four team captains this season with the WolfPack and says he and the other veterans are ready to formally take over a leadership position. " We have done a lot of the duties over the past few years. It is nice to formally have the title. I think we (fellow co captains Jan Pirrates Glasmacher, Justin Donaldson and James Fraser) take the responsibility seriously."

The Pack see their first match action comes up Thursday (Aug 22) when they meet up with the Fresno Pacific Thunderbirds (NCAA Div II).   They then follow up with 'friendlies' against two California Junior Colleges—the Clovis College Crush on Friday (Aug 23) and the College of the Seqouias Giants on Saturday (Aug 24).

Thompson Rivers has the opening weekend bye in Canada West play and debuts in 2019 on Saturday August 31^st on the Warner Rentals field at Hillside Stadium when they meet up with the UBC Thunderbirds. It's a  1pm kickoff.   The match will be shown on a pay-per-view basis on Canada West tv.