From Winnipeg to Austria to Ottawa, Christian Franz Hoefler has lived an adventurous life traveling the world and tasting fine foods as the son of a master chef and of course playing soccer.

Starting at age three in his parents backyard, Christian has accomplished a lot as a soccer player playing with Team Canada’s U17 team in the CONCACAF Qualifiers in San Salvador, El Salvador and winning a national championship title with the Thunder in 2002, his rookie season. Adding to his soccer resume, the 6’0 midfielder is in elite company with four OCAA gold and one silver medals to his credit, as well as numerous league and tournament award nods. Outside of his own game, the assistant captain also wears another hat and can be found shaping the next generation of soccer players, coaching within the Ottawa Fury club program in the U12/U13 boys divisions.

But, this week the fifth year veteran will have to rely all of his life and sporting experiences for one last opportunity to earn a second national championship with his Algonquin Thunder. With the final curtain going up on Tuesday in Toronto, Christian will need to use all of the wit to keep his rookies loose and the focus he possesses to gather the warriors on the field as they do their best to make their way back into the national championship game.

Follow Christian here daily with his personal insight on his final CCAA championship run.

Day 1:

After a long but entertaining bus ride, we have finally arrived to the prestigious Best Western Hotel in Richmond Hill. The hosts from Seneca and the OCAA greeted us very kindly with a World class tour of the spa and surrounding facilities. My roommates for the week are the captivating Mili “Zizou” Ombasic and the Serbian Hero Dejan “City Prof” Radojevic. I am sure to have regular visits from the ever curious Ali Albadry and “Prime Time” Paul Kihara for use of our amenities and company.

My fellow teammates are excited to be here and you could feel the energy when we entered the change room at the Esther Shiner Complex. The last time I played here was in 2006 with the St. Anthony's Ottawa Italia Men’s Premier team versus the then A-League Toronto Lynx. We won that CSL Open Canada Cup Final 2-0. My Algonquin Head Coach Kwesi Loney was also a member of St. Anthony's then, so we had a good chat before training today reminiscing about our past glory here.

Training was light but very useful with lots of touches on the ball. This helps us to get accustomed to the pitch. There were quite a few Camera crews and reporters during our session which gave it an exhilarating feel for most of the Rookies who have yet to experience Nationals.

We had some time after training to relax and prepare for the awards banquet and dinner. Most of us took this free time to watch the thrilling Champions League clash between Real Madrid and AC Milan.

At the awards banquet we were blessed with an inspirational speech from Former Canadian National Team Player Nick Dasovic. I grew up watching Nick Dasovic play and it was an honour to be able to meet him in person.

The meal was well presented with an array of fresh seasonal garden vegetables, penne pasta, oven roasted potatoes, grade AAA Alberta roast beef, and Venetian chocolate mousse.

Awards were presented and the best part for us was to witness Sean Pound receive his well deserved CCAA All-Canadian Award. I have played with Sean for two years now and I am sure any of his teammates from the past, present and future will agree; Sean Pound completes a team with his professional demeanor, passion for the beautiful game and Spartanesque leadership. Well done Sean! We all look forward to doing battle with you by your side this week.

On top of Sean’s success, we were enthralled to find out that our coaching staff were acknowledged by the CCAA with the Coach of the Year Award. Congrats to Jimmy, Kwesi and Les on this achievement.

As for our first game…I must say this to my fellow Algonquin Thunder Warriors reading on, "What is your profession… ?"

Day 2:

We woke up fairly early today to grab a light continental breakfast before heading to the Stadium for our first game.

The warm-up went well with each player eager to hear the kick-off whistle.

We lost 2-1.The loss stings but we are beyond our age in attitude and we have no choice but to accept this loss, learn from it, and move on. You have to have a little faith and sometimes failure is the tuition you pay for success.

We remain united as a team and will do whatever is necessary to ensure we do not slip this way again.

Thank you to all the Algonquin Supporters that came out to our game today. We really appreciate your presence and would love to see you out again at our next game!

"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." - Michael Jordan

Day 3:

We woke up early again to grab ourselves some breakfast and prepare for the day ahead of us.

The coaches suggested we watch our previous game versus Quebec to analyze the positives and negatives from our performance. It was tough to watch this knowing the obvious outcome of the game was not in our favour, but it may have been necessary to witness exactly what we could do better on the pitch.

After the viewing of our loss, we went to Esther Shiner to watch Alberta play Quebec. Alberta had quite a few talented players and created many scoring opportunities, but eventually shared the same fate that we did versus Quebec. With Alberta losing, this guaranteed that we would be unable to battle for the gold medal. This was very tough to swallow and I am sure any player craving a gold medal would understand what we our team is going through.

The positive from this is that we still have a shot at Bronze and can aid next year’s OCAA Champions with a 3rd place finish. Yes this was not our main objective, but winning our next 2 games is the least we could do.

Once we left the Esther Shiner Stadium, we came back to the Hotel to relax a little bit and Dejan decided to make Mili and I Mortadella sandwiches. Our two hosts then led us to Si Vous Play (SVP), a sports apparel store which sells all the big name brands at reasonable prices. Many bargains were had and the boys now look fresh in their new get ups. I recall Jimmy grabbing a FC Barcelona Hoodie for a mere $9! Our next team destination was the Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre. All the shopping and touring of the city was done to clear our minds a little bit and stretch our legs.

A bunch of us went out to Dinner at nearby restaurants to dine and relax amongst each other. I must admit there is such a vast amount of options when it comes to dining in this area! This just makes our decisions tougher when picking a place that has something for everyone!

The night ended early as we began to focus on our task at hand tomorrow versus Alberta.

We look forward to the game and seeing our Thunder supporters in the stands!

Day 4

We ate the usual breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to our rooms to nap a little.

It was pleasant to be able to relax a little more before our game today as kickoff was not until 2pm.

The game was a disaster again in the first half as we fell behind 2-0. A few changes were made at halftime and this sparked a surge of attack on the organized team from Alberta. Even though we battle for a comeback and gave it our all in the 2nd half, we came up short and lost 3-2. The pictures and video highlights on the CCAA Nationals Facebook fanpage explain it all.

A bitter taste in the mouth to be ending my college career playing for 5th place, but life goes on and we hope to atleast come out of these Championships with a victory.

Day 5

Tired. Earliest morning so far this week. I remember Dejan's cellphone alarm "Enrique Iglesias - Be With You" going off at 6:55AM for breakfast. I closed my eyes for what felt like 20 seconds but actually ended up being 30 minutes. Our room door knocked at 7:25AM and it was Gagliano asking where we were. What a disaster. I laughed at the Serbian curses coming from the washroom. We had 5 minutes to grab whatever soccer gear we could find before the bus would leave us behind. We had to leave the hotel at 7:30AM to make it to the pitch in time for a proper warmup before the 9AM kickoff.

This has been the best weather I have experienced at CCAA Nationals so far. The past three Nationals that I was a part of have been snow and/or cold weather conditions. No wind and the sun shining was great conditions to play in.

You could tell prior to the game that the boys were not as motivated as usual. We're used to battling for Gold and not 5th place. The whistle blew and surprisingly we started off strong. We went up 3-0 and finally removed the curse of going down 2-0 to the opposition at these Nationals.

As the 2nd half was about to begin the realization that this was my last 45 minutes playing in a an Algonquin Thunder jersey hit me hard. I could see that it was also impacting Dejan and Gagliano the same way. We told each other to enjoy it and that is exactly what we did.

The game ended 3-1 for us and it felt good to end the Gonq career with a win.

Even though we didn't win Gold, I want to thank all of our supporters who came to cheer us on throughout the Championship! I would also like to thank my loving Family, Ron Port, Algonquin College, Steve O'Kane, Mike Caruso, The Coaching Staff, all my teachers for understanding the compressed schedule a student athlete has to endure, Trian Mateas, Peter Weintrager, Stevie Bensiscs, St Anthony's, Jim Cannovan, Paul James, the Ottawa Fury, Frank Lofranco, Debbie
Aufleger, the OCAA, and last but not least... all the players who I have had the privilege to play with throughout my soccer career. I have learned a lot from all of you and I will never forget the moments we were able to cherish life.

Now it is time to live my passion of the game through the U13 Boys Ottawa Fury team that I coach. The future of the Canadian game looks prosperous!

Congrats to Seneca on their Gold and I'm out!

- Christian