2023-24 Men's Soccer Preview
2022-23 Recap
-10-0-0 (1st OCAA East Division)
-OCAA Championship - Silver medal
-CCAA Championship - Silver medal
-Outscored opponents during the regular season 50-5
-Extended regular season unbeated streak to 14 games
-CCAA All-Canadian (Atif Ali)
-CCAA Championship Most Valuable Player (Anthony Gurrieri)
-Three CCAA Championship All-Stars (Anthony Gurrieri, Francisco Thomas Cerros, Aaron Toniolo)
-OCAA East Division Player of the Year (Atif Ali)
-OCAA East Division Best Defensive Team
-Five OCAA East Division First Team All-Stars (Anthony Gurrieri, Atif Ali, Joshua Alegria, Alex Lewis, Francisco Thomas Cerros)
-Two OCAA East Division Second Team All-Stars (Aaron Toniolo, Michael Pelligrini)
-Two OCAA Championship All-Stars (Francisco Thomas Cerros, Atif Ali)
2023-24 Outlook
The Sting return 11 players from last year's OCAA and CCAA silver medal team, but have experienced a number of major changes as the calendar flips to the 2023 season.
CCAA National Championship Most Valuable Player Anthony Gurrieri has graduated and will no longer backstop the Sting. 2022 OCAA East Division Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Toniolo and Dilman Grewel will no longer help anchor one of the steadiest backends in the country. The team lost more than half their goal production with Alegria, Lewis, Tyler Cleghorn, Imran Abdulatif and Cerros no longer in the Sting uniform. Finally, behind the bench, Patrice Gheisar moved on to the Halifax Wanderer's of the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPL) after guiding the Sting to three OCAA medals in three seasons.
Despite all the changes, the Sting have continued to build on the foundation set since Gheisar's arrival in 2019. Rob Cavicchia, a former assistant coach with the Sting is now leading the Sting. Cavicchia has built a staff loaded with experience and Sting flavour. Assistant Coach Joe Amato, a former Sting, will be back for his fifth season. Joining Amato as an assistant coach will be the defensive stalward in Grewel. Rounding out the coaching staff will be Goalkeeper Coach David Iantosca.
Amar Dhindsa will be between the last line of defense and brings many of the same character traits and maturity that Seneca's 2022-23 Athlete of the Year (Gurrieri) brought. Joining the Sting season will be another highly touted recruiting class including Guilherme Lopes, Andy Buzi, Adrian Josephs and Matteo Pitocco.
Returning for the Sting will be leading goal scorer and OCAA East Second Team All-Star Michael Pelligrini who will look to for a second consecutive double-digit (10) scoring season along with Steven Janjicek, Daniel Pitocco, Adam Othman, Matthew Smith, Rashad Griffith, Paiman Sultani, Alex Ramirez and Marco Frangini-Andrade.
Highlighting the returning players is captain Atif Ali, a 2022 CCAA All-Canadian and OCAA East Division Player of the Year. The fourth-year defender brings a calm and quiet demeanor and will be relied on to set the tone for the young Sting players.
"This season, we hope to carry over the momentum from last year's National Championship finalist run. We graduated a few key players from last year's squad but the majority of the team will be returning and are ready to contribute this season. We are also bringing in a strong class of 8 recruits that have experience at a high level and we believe they will be able to jump right into the squad and make an impact on the pitch." - Rob Cavicchia, Head Coach