Local CAPERS Academy player, Iven Gouthro, recruited to CBU men's soccer program

By IAIN KING

THERE'S a photograph in the CAPERS archives, 2023 National title winning hero Jacob Spizzirri screaming in joy in the locker-room with a fresh-faced teenager called Iven Gouthro.

Back then, Iven was a 15-year-old midfielder with a head full of dreams of playing for his hometown university. Today the CAPERS Academy graduate is Head Coach Deano Morley's latest signing in the recruitment class of 2026.

Now 18, Team Nova Scotia Canada Games athlete, Iven, is thrilled to have achieved a long-held goal and he reasons: "This is where I am from, I grew up in Dominion and my roots mean so much to me, I always wanted to play here.

"My close friend Justin Chiasson's late dad Robbie was our youth coach and  the Head Coach of the CAPERS so I was always around this program as a little kid.

"I'd be in the Cape Breton FC U12 team dreaming of playing for the University one day.

"I was lucky enough to get to know a lot of the players in that 2023 National title winning team and that was special.

"They'd coach us, players like Jacob Spizzirri, who scored the winning goal in the Final were a big help to me when they knew I had big games or try-outs coming up with Team NS and the EXCEL program."

In the latest Soccer Nova Scotia announcement, the CAPERS Academy had seven players selected to various Provincial squads.

When Iven was growing up it would often only be him in the boys' ranks alongside his fellow CBU recruit for the women's team, Ava MacDonald, who would be the only island girl selected.

That throws up a special kind of test from a budding soccer player, bidding for acceptance not only in the locker-rooms of Halifax but also on the field.

"All my young life I have been the only Cape Breton kid in my Provincial squad and that can be tough," Iven reflects.

"My team-mates get up when they want and get to BMO, if it's a Saturday I might be up at 6am to get down there for the first practice at 12noon in Halifax.

"Then after a weekend of that you get back to be up for school Monday morning on the island.

"I think it toughened my mentality, having to prove myself every time down there.

"I know I had to be sharper than them, they play each other all the time and train together and I didn't have that level of challenge."

CAPERS Head Coach Morley, once the Technical Director of Soccer Cape Breton, has over two decades of experience in the journeys of youth players on the island.

He has watched Iven grow physically, technically and mentally into a player who has earned this chance.

Deano smiles: "It makes me incredibly proud to welcome Iven to our program. As a graduate of the CAPERS Academy, he is someone we have been watching and developing for several years.

"To now see him take the next step into our Varsity environment is exactly what our pathway is designed to achieve.

"Iven is a smart, driven young man who will be joining CBU to pursue Engineering, a program that demands discipline, focus and commitment.

"He should be extremely proud of the dedication he has shown to both his education and his football development to reach this point."

The CAPERS Academy is built on the power of role models, whether they are the Varsity players who coach the talents or the Academy kids themselves mentoring their younger team-mates.

Iven has done that admirably over the past 12 months becoming a leading light in the Performance Pathway Program and inspiring rising stars like U15AAA midfielder Abiram Gudimetla.

Deano watches that process and loves it and he reasons: "Players like Iven, along with others such as Justin Chiasson, who is also moving on to AUS football, serve as powerful examples for young Cape Bretoners. They show what is possible when talent is matched with hard work, passion and belief.

"On the field, Iven is intelligent and composed. He is fit, mobile, and brings a strong work ethic. What stood out most to me was the excitement and pride on his face when signing his contract.

"That moment captures what CAPERS football is all about. Representing Cape Breton at the highest-level means something to him.

"Once Iven is immersed full-time in our professional environment, his ceiling will continue to rise and his development will accelerate. We are proud to welcome him to the CAPERS family and look forward to working closely with him in the years ahead."

In August, Iven will move into residence within a stone's throw of Ness Timmons Field, his second home growing up.

The Dominion native has always had the utmost respect for Coach Deano who has been a constant presence giving back to the soccer community.

Iven reflects: "In the Academy, Deano would take some sessions, and he was always my favourite coach.

"I walked out of every session a better player and I felt like he was taking my levels up. He fuelled my love of sports and the challenge; I look to those in front of me and work out what I need to do to earn my spot.

"I love the thought of that, and my ultimate goal is to emulate the likes of Max Piepgrass and Harvey Hughes who I have had the privilege of training with.

"You look at their games, and you try to take parts of each of them and bring it to yours.

"There were others I loved to watch like Spizz and Owen Sheppard from the nationals team and I feel that being from Cape Breton has been an advantage in my later years of development and not a disadvantage.

"My friends in Halifax don't have the ties I do with Varsity players, they have put so many different ideas into my head.

"In my last years in the Academy we have had Amadou Bayo and Kieran Maddock from CAPERS as coaches and that's priceless. They raised the standards and I have learned so much from them."

Like any highly rated prospect, Iven had signing options when it came to his soccer home for the coming years.

Yet in the end there was only going to be one choice.

He reveals: "I had thoughts of America for my schooling and then I started thinking: 'I have the top program in Canada 20 minutes from my house, why would I go there?'

"What will the CAPERS fans see from me? I understand the challenge I have as a local player; it is eventually to get into the starting 11 and not be happy being a sub.

"I want to get in and play my aggressive attacking box to box game. That's my aim. I see the players that are being recruited and I want to play alongside them."