For Eddie Mukahanana, the path through soccer has never been a straight line.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball takes you so many different places that you don\u2019t usually expect,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe. California. Russia. Victoria.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the journey that eventually led him to Vancouver Island, where he\u2019s been coaching since 2000. Six years ago, he launched Westcastle International Academy.<\/p>\n
Watch below:<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve spent any time on the sidelines of local soccer pitches, you\u2019ve likely seen the name. And maybe the man behind it.<\/p>\n
Westcastle is rooted in community and fun, but it\u2019s also about something bigger: creating a real pathway for Vancouver Island athletes to reach the next level.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore competitive opportunities and more opportunities to play at the highest level,\u201d Mukahanana says.<\/p>\n
For some, that means college. For others, university. For a select few, maybe even the pros.<\/p>\n
Mukahanana insists talent is everywhere. It just needs the right eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalent is everywhere. What we need is to find it and nurture it and develop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need trained eyes to see the ability in Eni Rotimi.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old British-Nigerian prospect joined Westcastle last year when the program was training in Sweden. He\u2019s spending the winter in Victoria, sharpening his game under Mukahanana\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows when to give you an arm around the shoulder,\u201d Rotimi says, \u201cbut then also when you need to improve in certain areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mukahanana\u2019s belief in development stretches far beyond Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n
CHEK News last featured him in 2012, when he was coaching the Vancouver Island Wave girls program \u2014 while collecting donated cleats and soccer balls to send back home to Zimbabwe. Small contributions added up. And eventually, so did the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sent two players to the English Premier League,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
His grassroots efforts recently earned national recognition from Canada Soccer, which highlighted his story on social media as part of Black History Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta be proud of that,\u201d we ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there\u2019s still so much more to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Executive director Alexia Eiley says that mindset is exactly what sets him apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t care about being that pro coach or that pro player. He cares about being that coach that got that player going and helped develop that foundation so that he could be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
National attention is nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must be doing something good,\u201d Mukahanana says with a smile.<\/p>\n
From raw potential to can\u2019t-miss prospect, from donated cleats to Premier League dreams, the lines may not be straight.<\/p>\n
But for the players chasing them, the path is there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Eddie Mukahanana, the path through soccer has never been a straight line. \u201cFootball takes you so many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,1062],"class_list":["post-477738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}