The same reason stuck out to Alex Lamontagne and Natasha Tcheki-Jamgotchian about Syracuse when they were deciding where to play soccer. The Orange already had players from Canada, appealing to both Lamontagne, an Ontario native, and Tcheki-Jamgotchian, from Quebec.

Syracuse (4-10-1, 0-6 Atlantic Coast) has five Canadian players on its roster — Lamontagne, Tcheki-Jamgotchian, Drina Domic, Maddie Iozzi and Rebecca Pongetti — the most of any SU team other than ice hockey. Syracuse has focused increasingly on its recruiting pockets in Canada recently as the sport has grown there. The increased effort has proved fruitful, as four of the Orange’s Canadian-born players have emerged as key contributors this season.

Lamontagne is tied for the team lead in goals, while Iozzi, Pongetti and Tcheki-Jamgotchian have all started at least seven games this season.

SU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Neel Bhattacharjee said the tendency to recruit players from Canada is partially due to the country’s geographical proximity to Syracuse. It’s also because those players have competed at high levels with club teams and in the Canadian national system.

“It certainly translates to what we’re looking for here at the ACC, Division I level,” Bhattacharjee said.

Both SU’s assistant coach and head coach Phil Wheddon have developed relationships with national team and club coaches in Canada. Bhattacharjee said some of their closest connections are with the Lakeshore and Pickering clubs, for which Tcheki-Jamgotchian and Iozzi played.

Iozzi, Pongetti and Tcheki-Jamgotchian all played for the Canada U-17 women’s national team under coach Bryan Rosenfeld.

“Those contacts have certainly helped us with players in that pipeline,” Bhattacharjee said.

Bhattacharjee said that recruits from Canada and elsewhere have been more willing to play for Syracuse since the team moved from the Big East to the ACC in 2013.

“If you’re a really competitive player, you want to compete at the highest level and the ACC represents that,” he said.

Being so close to Canada gives Syracuse an advantage over other ACC schools. Whereas a number of schools in the former Big East were located in the northeast, Pittsburgh is the only ACC school that has proven to be a consistent threat to SU in recruiting Canada. The Panthers currently have five players from Ontario on their roster.

For the Canadian players on Syracuse’s team, playing collegiately in the United States was always the goal. Collegiate soccer in Canada offers “nothing compared to the U.S.” in terms of competition, Lamontagne said.

“I wanted to come here because it’s more of a challenge,” she said.

For Lamontagne, being able to play with familiar faces in college was enticing. She played with Iozzi throughout her life, first when they were 8 years old. They played together in 2011 for Ontario’s provincial team and were simultaneously recruited by Syracuse.

In the coming years, Lamontagne expects the pool of Canadian players for Syracuse to pick from to expand. According to a 2014 report by the Solutions Research Group, soccer is the most popular team sport among girls in Canada.

After Canada hosted the World Cup this past summer, Tcheki-Jamgotchian said she expects that will spark interest.

“Even before that, what they did in the Olympics made a lot of people aware,” she said of the women’s national team’s third place finish in the 2012 Summer Olympics. “Now it’s just going to grow more and more.”

Published on October 13, 2015 at 10:25 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu