‘Best experience’: Homegrown soccer star kicks off Team Canada journey

Owen Lock of Newmarket Huron Heights Secondary School has long envisioned playing for Team Canada.

The Keswick native, who was born and raised in Bradford and attended WH Day Primary School, said growing up he hoped to get into hockey, dreaming of playing in the sport’s famous juniors.

But it was football that called Lock. The linebacker represented his country as part of Team Canada 1 at the IFAF World Junior Football Championship in Edmonton in recent days. His team defeated Japan in the gold medal match on June 30.

“It felt amazing,” Lock said before the win about being named to the team. “Every kid dreams of playing for their country… It was the best experience I’ve ever had.”

The tournament featured eight teams, including two Canadian rosters, USA, Japan, Austria, Australia, Panama and Brazil. Under-20 players compete to be crowned World Junior Champions. The tournament has been held every two years since it began in 2009, but now operates on a four-year cycle. This is also the first of 2018, with the COVID-19 pandemic halting the tour.

Lock, 17, who played with Newmarket’s famed Huron Heights Warriors the past two seasons and was named MVP in 2023, said this Canadian team was great to be a part of.

“You can already feel a connection between everyone. We are here with a common goal and as we went on it was great,” he said, adding that learning from some of the older players was also a positive experience.

The footballer said he started out as a complete athlete, also enjoying hockey in his younger years. But he picked up flag football in the 7th and 8th grades and decided to try full football when he got to high school, starting at Bill Crothers Secondary School.

“I fell in love with the sport immediately. It was everything hockey was, but so much more,” Lock said, adding that he appreciates the strategic elements of football. “It’s a whole different sport, and from there I wanted to start taking it more seriously, so I quit hockey.”

He went on to play for Bill Crothers and then a summer team in the York Region Lions before finally deciding to transfer to become part of the Huron Heights Warriors. The Warriors are widely regarded as one of the best high school football programs in the country and were the leaders in Ontario football last season.

Lock described a lifelong desire to be athletic. Soccer allowed him to shine, he said.

“People think it’s for captains, but it’s a sport that’s really allowed me to use my brain as well as those physical traits that I haven’t been able to use in other sports,” he said. “It really felt like it was a good fit.”

As a linebacker, Lock rushed for 839 yards in 13 games with Huron Heights in 2023, along with 13 touchdowns. The season earned him attention from colleges, with Lock hoping to enter post-secondary football.

But next season, Lock said he plans to return to Huron Heights for one more year after graduation.

“I’m still not 100 percent sure what I want to do at university,” he said, adding that he also missed out on time spent in school halls due to COVID-19. “I decided the best decision was to come back to Huron for another year and try to get as many opportunities for myself after that.”

The tournament will end on June 30. Lock Team Canada 1 opened the tournament on June 22 with a 110-0 win over Brazil. The team followed that up on June 26 with a 27-20 win over Austria and will now compete against Japan for the gold medal.

Asked to give advice to younger players, Lock said hard work really does pay off.

“Just work as hard as you can. “When you look back in the future, you’ll never say, ‘I wish I put less work into football,'” he said. “There’s always more to do to try and get to the next level.”