St. John’s soccer player drafted 1st overall into Canada’s top league

December 15, 2023

Owen Sheppard has scored a lot of goals on soccer fields around St. John’s, and now he’s aiming to do it at the highest level in the country.

Sheppard, 21, was selected first overall by Valor FC on Thursday in the Canadian Premier League’s U-Sports draft. The annual draft allows the CPL’s eight teams to choose players from Canadian universities to sign contracts with their organizations. Sheppard says it was an “unreal feeling” to be drafted into the top level of Canadian soccer and the country’s only full professional league. He was the only Newfoundland and Labrador player drafted.

“When I was younger, just coming into university, I was looking at the CPL draft and I was like, ‘Wow, you have to be an exceptional player for a professional team to want you,’” he told CBC News earlier this week. 

“I think displaying my ability this season kind of helped in my favor.”

It was likely Sheppard’s strong play this past season at Cape Breton University that vaulted him into the draft’s top slot. He was the leading scorer in Atlantic University Sport with nine goals in 11 matches, before scoring three more goals and earning tournament MVP honors on the way to a national championship. But Sheppard said his success on the soccer pitch didn’t always seem like a sure thing. 

After being born in St. John’s and moving to Alberta as a toddler, Sheppard and his family relocated to Grand Le Pierre when he was a young teenager, a town of fewer than 200 people on Newfoundland’s south coast.

“No cell service, no stores, no fields, but I didn’t let that stop me from pursuing my passion and playing footy,” he said.

Source: “St. John’s Soccer Player Drafted 1st Overall into Canada’s Top League | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 15 Dec. 2023, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/owen-sheppard-cpl-draft-1.7060315.