“I just want to prove a point to myself and to the coach. I want to show that I can go out there and score goals. I can start, or I can come off the bench and contribute. I am not concerned about the age factor. Age is just a number.”

Hometown products Shaun Saiko, who led the team in scoring last season, and fullback Antonio Rago were officially placed on the list, but Alberta-born centre back and NASL Best XI member Paul Hamilton was not part of the 16.

“We want to drip-feed these young men into our first-team environment and, hopefully, get them into our first team as quickly as possible,” Miller said. “In the first team, there will be massive changes, but there always will be a continuing influx of Canadians into the first-team group.”

While the TFC Academy and Whitecaps Residency players take up 60 per cent of the roster, the player on this squad that has the best chance of breaking into a senior pro squad this season is FC Edmonton Reserves’ Hanson Boakai. Not many training days go by without someone at FCE raving about his potential.

The players were on hand at St. Joseph Composite High School, where they will attend school while they train and play for the reserve squad. Through the school’s individual self-directed learning program, the kids get core subjects in the morning, have study/consultation time and should be free to train by the early afternoon.