It can be a long road for any athlete to make it to their ultimate goal – but for Airdrie’s Jacob Aulin-Angelozzi, he’s about to take one of the biggest steps in his soccer career.

It can be a long road for any athlete to make it to their ultimate goal – but for Airdrie’s Jacob Aulin-Angelozzi, he’s about to take one of the biggest steps in his soccer career.

Heading into the upcoming school year, Aulin-Angelozzi will begin his first year with the Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club (FC) residency program.

There, Aulin-Angelozzi will train, compete and go to school with some of the young prospects in the Whitecaps’ system.

“It’s pretty exciting to be a player from outside British Columbia getting called in,” Aulin-Angelozzi said. “I have wanted to be part of the residency program for quite some time now.

“This is one step closer to my dream of being able to play professionally and travel to other countries and play around the world.”

The 15-year-old will move to British Columbia for high school, where he will play with the rest of the Under-16 (U-16) team and get some of the best training and soccer instruction in the country.

One major adjustment Aulin-Angelozzi will have to face is transitioning to the public school system after being home-schooled in Airdrie.

“I think I’ll like it a lot more than home-schooling,” Aulin-Angelozzi said. “I felt isolated and kind of disconnected, but that gave me a lot more time to do schoolwork and train.”

Aulin-Angelozzi will also have to get accustomed to life away from his parents. In Burnaby, he will be living with billets.

“It’s sad, but exciting at the same time knowing that you’re going to be around players that have the same dreams and aspirations as you,” Aulin-Angelozzi said. “It’s going to be a lot different not seeing my parents every time before I play.”

Aulin-Angelozzi began playing soccer at the age of five with the Airdrie Aztecs soccer program. He played in Airdrie until his first year of U-10, when he joined the Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club.

After playing with the Blizzard, Aulin-Angelozzi played with the Calgary South West Soccer Association before finally earning a spot with the Calgary Foothills Soccer Club. The striker is currently in his third year with Foothills.

Aulin-Angelozzi recently competed on the U-15 Canadian national team in Quebec in late April.

At that time, he and the rest of the team weren’t committed to residency programs. Aulin-Angelozzi got the opportunity to compete against the residency programs of Canada’s three Major League Soccer teams – the Whitecaps, Toronto FC and Montreal Impact.

Canada went undefeated at the tournament, winning 2-1 over Montreal, 4-1 against Toronto and 2-0 over the Whitecaps.

Aulin-Angelozzi added the Whitecaps reached out to him prior to the Identification Camp and said the team would be watching him.

Aulin-Angelozzi’s performance at the camp impressed the team – kicking off his soccer career to the next level and setting him on a path to joining the Whitecaps residency program this fall.