As he loaded balls into a mesh bag at the end of Ottawa Fury FC practice earlier this week, Paul Huggins looked more like a coach or a soccer scout.

Turns out he's a sports chaplain, and an experienced one at that.

Huggins has spent 18 years with the Christian athletics group Athletes in Action, and has worked with athletes at the University of Ottawa and Carleton, while also serving as team chaplain of the Ottawa 67's and now, the Fury. He'll add the Ottawa RedBlacks to his CV this summer.

"It keeps me busy, but I like it," he told the Sun.

There are a number of Fury players with strong faiths, and Huggins will undoubtedly spend a lot of time with them.

But he's there for the team, and the players don't have to be religious to benefit from his presence.

People are three-dimensional, he said, and the idea is to find balance between the mental, physical and spiritual. For athletes, the latter often gets less attention.

While the advice he offers comes from a Christian perspective, "a lot of it is helping create a foundation and vision for players that helps them see their current realities in light of a bigger reality," Huggins said.

That could include struggles on the field, with injuries, in relationships or "every day life stuff."

"Beyond that it's really just keeping an eye out see if there's guys that look like they could use someone to talk to, some help, some advice, some support," said Huggins.

He said head coach Marc Dos Santos was "instrumental" in having him come work with the team.

"I'm not here without his support," he said.

Huggins has met the players and will be available to meet one-on-one. He'll also run the team's weekly chapel time for interested players.

FOREIGNERS STILL MISSING

Three of Ottawa Fury FC's foreign signings have yet to make it into Canada.

Maykon Araujo, Hamza Elias and newly-signed Vini Dantas are still going through the international transfer process.

Araujo and Dantas are still in their native Brazil as they wait for visas, while Elias is at home in Ghana.

They are all expected in Ottawa somewhere around March 15, and Dos Santos isn't worried about the trio missing the first half of camp.

"Not concerned at all," the coach said Tuesday following the team's training session. "We (want) them to be here, but it's all things that we can't control.

"Good foreigners are tough to get in the country and that's the reality."

You'd have to expect the three players will come to camp in good shape, but Dos Santos still plans to ease them into the routine.

"We're going to have to do a certain type of work with them before they actually get in training session," he said.

Araujo and Dantas are expected to come into camp and battle for spots on the starting 11. Elias, meanwhile, will be interesting to watch. He's more of an unknown for the team, having never played outside of Africa.

YOUTH IS KEY

The Ottawa Fury will not be an option for older players looking only to play out their careers.

The team has a mix of youth and veterans with high-level soccer experience, but the coaching staff wanted players with plenty of game left, not players on the downswing.

That's particularly true of the team's seven foreign signings, including the likes of Spain's Ramon Soria, 24, Scotland's Nicki Paterson, 29 and Brazil's Oliver Minatel, 21.

The team's oldest two players, Sinisa Ubiparipovic and Omar Jarun, are both 30.

"We're happy that our foreigners are young and it's not guys that come here tired to end their career," said Dos Santos.

He said he wanted foreigners under 30 "so we have space to make them grow."

"They're here with objectives," he said.

IS IT GAME TIME YET?

Ask Ubiparipovic how long it would take before guys are dying to play an actual match. The native of Yugoslavia estimated that would be sometime around next week, though he said he'd love to get into a game now.

Still, he knows there's a lot of work to be done before then, but all of these guys have huge competitive streaks and are going to get antsy as the exhibition games draw closer.

"You can tell the guys are excited," said the 30-year-old midfielder.

With five seasons of MLS experience, including four with the New York Red Bulls, Ubiparipovic should be a leader on the field.

"I hope to be," he said when asked if he's going to be a guy younger players come to for advice.

SIDELINES

Interesting to hear from guys coming from warmer climates about the difficulties getting acclimated to the cold air here ... Speaking of weather, getting a bit tired of telling players it's normally quite a bit warmer in March. Just sounds like a lie right now ... A few different languages can be heard spoken between players at practice. Dos Santos speaks four himself: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish ... The team will get its first day off since camp started on Saturday before an inter-squad game at 10 a.m. Sunday.

Twitter: @chrishofley