HALIFAX—Scott Firth came out of his geography exam to a chorus of congratulations on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old soccer player, currently in his last year at Lockview High School, received a stream of calls, texts and tweets full of best wishes after it was announced Firth would be the first Halifax-born player to sign for the HFX Wanderers FC.

“(I’m) pretty excited, it’s a lot to take in. Phone’s going a bit crazy,” he said from his family’s Windsor Junction home, adding he’s hearing from local residents, and people from the soccer community.

“It makes me feel welcome to the team, because clearly people care about this signing.”

Firth, a midfielder, said he has had to keep everything a secret since talks began with Wanderers coach Stephen Hart last September. He finally took photos with the team jersey a couple weeks ago when he signed the contract.

Going through all the details of taking the step to a professional level was a lot to take in at first, Firth said, but he aimed to keep calm and “keep doing what I’m doing to keep playing. Hopefully not change anything before season starts.”

The Wanderers have a spot in the new Canadian Premier League (CPL), with games expected to kick off for the inaugural season in April.

Being a hometown player stepping onto the field will be “just great,” Firth said.

“I’ll have pretty much the biggest connection initially with the fans, and hopefully they’ll be on my side to start off with,” he added with a laugh.

Firth shows good “tactical understanding,” is growing day to day technically, and his attitude on and off the field is excellent, Hart said in a Wanderers release.

“He is a young player, but this is his chance. This league is about finding that potential talent and providing the opportunity where their game can grow,” the coach said.

Firth says that, as a kid, when he dreamed of playing soccer professionally he assumed it would be “definitely not here,” since the CPL was only formed in 2017.

“It would’ve had to have been going away, whether that’s Montreal … or overseas and to Europe, you never know. But now that the league’s here, it’s a really good opportunity,” he said.

Firth has already had a taste of competing on the Wanderers’ field in downtown Halifax last summer, when he was chosen to play for the Wanderers Atlantic Selects team against Fortuna Düsseldorf — which he saw at the time as a “trial” for the Wanderers.

That game shows just how much soccer culture and support has risen in Nova Scotia in recent years, Firth said, since he was blown away to see a turnout of about 5,000 people.

“That’s clear evidence that it’s just growing and growing, and hopefully we can get those same numbers in the league,” he said.

Firth said he began playing the game at age five, and has been with the local Suburban FC since he was 12, heading to club nationals with the team three times. He has also won three Atlantic championships with the Nova Scotia provincial team.

And he’s travelled widely, heading to trials for two teams in Portugal, spending time in the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program, and trying out with Toronto FC’s U-20 team.

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But he said his fondest soccer moment is at the Canada Games.

Firth said getting to represent Nova Scotia in Winnipeg at the 2017 summer games, alongside his friends, and being one of the youngest players on the team, was a special experience.

When asked what is it about soccer that keeps him constantly training and striving for the next level, he said “it’s just knowing that you can go really far if you put your mind to it and try. It’s a process to try to become professional, and you’ve got to just keep working at it and working at it.”

Firth is the ninth player to sign with the Wanderers, joining Vincent Lamy, Elliot Simmons, Canadians Zachary Sukunda and Chakib Hocine, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Akeem Garcia, Andre Rampersad, Elton John and Jan-Michael Williams.

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