At 22, Vancouver’s Callum Irving has already endured his share of athletic ups and downs.
The senior goalkeeper from the University of Kentucky arrives at Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore on a high, however.
First-team All-America honours. Scholastic All-American. Conference USA player of the year, among other accolades.
Irving led Kentucky (12-5-2 overall) to an undefeated (7-0-1) conference run, earning the school its first Conference USA regular-season title while conceding just one goal in eight matches. In 19 games with the Wildcats in 2015, he gave up 13 goals for a 0.66 goals-against average.
But there have been obstacles along the way. And he had to learn the business side of the sport quickly.
He started soccer at age four. "As any kid does," he said. "From there it’s just kind of been a bit of a long path for me to get where I am."
Irving went through the Whitecaps residency program, although Vancouver ultimately elected not to offer him a homegrown player contract. And he struggled in his first year at Kentucky, earning and then losing the starting job.
At six foot one, Irving is not the biggest ‘keeper. He was used to having to fight to make teams growing up.
"But I wasn’t used to being out of my comfort zone and coming (to Kentucky) definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone," he said. "That was definitely something I had to learn from and was a bit of a shock, not kind of just being handed the opportunity and nurtured through it. I had to fight for myself. I was the only one here that was going to fight for me.
"It definitely was a learning experience to have that failure compared to the success that I had been enjoying up to that point."
After graduating high school, Irving was focused on trying to earn a contract with the Whitecaps. The MLS team wanted him to get some experience in the NCAA.
Kentucky offered him the most help in terms of scholarship.
"I didn’t really know too much what I was getting into. But once I got here, I knew I kind of realized I was getting pretty lucky.
He finished his Kentucky career with school records in shutouts (27) and goals-against average (0.86).
He credits the teammates in front of him for his success. But he also underwent an attitude adjustment after his disappointing first year at school. Instead of looking ahead to an early exit to rejoin the Whitecaps, he threw himself into doing what’s best for the team — knowing it would pay off for him too. Plus he spent a lot of hours in the gym to bulk up.
It paid off when he won the job back.
"Once I took it, I was not going to let it go," he said.
The Whitecaps, expressing satisfaction in their current stock of goalkeepers, eventually elected not to sign Irving, who has attended both Canadian under-18 and under-20 camps.
The ‘keeper understood, although he admits to some disappointment about it.
"It’s a professional game," he said. "It’s not always about sentimental things like playing for your hometown club. Sometimes it’s about what’s best for the club and for the player."
There are several other ‘keepers of note available in the draft.
Clemson’s Andrew Tarbell, a junior, will be attractive due to both his play and Generation Adidas contract which does not count against a team’s salary cap. And at six foot seven, Washington’s Ryan Herman is hard to miss.
Other ‘keepers at the Combine were Furman’s Sven Lissek, Creighton’s Connor Sparrow and Cal Poly’s Wade Hamilton.
