It’s the kind of scenario that usually only exists in the hypothetical. Find a soccer discussion at any pub, and it won’t take too long before the topic of what it would look like if the top player, or coach, from one league moved to another, and whether their success would translate, comes up.

This past season, Canadian Premier League fans got to see that typically theoretical situation actually play out on the pitch. On Nov. 30, 2022 the Halifax Wanderers announced 2022 League1 Ontario Coach of the Year Patrice Gheisar as their new manager. Less than a month later, Halifax confirmed that they had also signed attacker Massimo Ferrin, who played under Gheisar with Vaughan Azzurri in League1, and was the league’s reigning MVP and Golden Boot winner. Together, the pair had also won the 2022 League1 Ontario title.

Joining them in Halifax were Vaughan assistant coach Jorden Feliciano and players Kosi Nwafornso and Riley Ferrazzo. With the moves came the nickname ‘Halifax Vaughanderers’ and the clear question as to whether they could turn around a Halifax side that had missed the playoffs by 17 points in 2023. Over the course of the 2023 CPL season Gheisar and Ferrin, in particular, delivered an emphatic answer. The Wanderers finished third in the table, only behind second-place Forge on the fourth tiebreaker, Gheisar was nominated for the league’s Coach of the Year award, and Ferrin finished tenth in voting for Players’ Player of the Year.

Halifax also announced on Thursday — the one-year anniversary of Gheisar’s hiring — that they were extending Gheisar’s contract through the 2025 season.

In quickly finding success, Gheisar and Ferrin made a strong case to Canadian Premier League teams, especially with the number of clubs expected to grow over the next few years, that there is both player and coaching talent within League1 Ontario that is ready to take the next step. It is a continued example of the formation of a Canadian soccer pathway that stands to benefit the sport in this country for years to come.

“Hopefully my progress will show that there are a lot more players and coaches in this country that are just ready and champing at the bit to have an opportunity,” Gheisar told CanPL.ca, later adding, “We need more players, we need more officials, we need more coaches in this country so I’m hoping that will be able to drive more forward.” 

Admittedly, things didn’t exactly get off to the greatest start for Gheisar in Halifax from a results perspective. When the Wanderers went winless in their first nine matches of the year in all competitions, many wondered if things had truly changed at all on the East Coast. Learning to deal with those losses, and still trust in what he and the group were building, was one of the toughest lessons for Gheisar through the first few months of the season as doubts naturally started to creep in.

“It sounds kind of corny, [but] you had to not let losses kill you,” he said. “I think at League1 I didn’t lose for two and a half years. Also with Seneca College, we went undefeated, we had one loss in two years. But this is a highly competitive league, you are going to lose and game and you need to say ‘It’s okay, you lost, learn and move on’.”

Move on and move up Halifax did, as following their first win of the season on June 10, 2-0 against Valour, they lost just six of their final 19 matches. The Wanderers finished with a club-record 42 points, which was the same amount as eventual CPL Final winner, and league heavyweight, Forge FC — which earned the club its first-ever home playoff match at the Wanderers Grounds.

Helping to lead that charge up the table were a few of the players who had joined Gheisar from Vaughan: Ferrin and Ferrazzo. Seeing those players show that they could make the jump to the CPL level and still be reliable was immensely rewarding for the Halifax head coach.

“It was incredible honestly,” said Gheisar. “I don’t mean that in a way that I’m surprised how they ended up progressing, obviously I wouldn’t have ended up signing them if I felt any other way. But to see it come to life was something different. It was special because I know that they deserved to be there. God knows how many times I recommended them to different teams in North America, so to see it happen, one, I was proud and two, it makes you feel good too that you’re assessing not just based on emotional attachment but also on your talent eye.”

Prior to this past season, Ferrin had been in talks with multiple CPL clubs when he got a call from Gheisar to chat about his future. Gheisar listened patiently as Ferrin mulled over his opinions, before telling him the big news: he would be Halifax’s head coach for the upcoming season. It was a pretty easy decision from Ferrin from there. What came next was trying to prove that the 23 goals he scored in 15 League1 Ontario matches during 2022 would translate to a higher level.

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Like the team, it took Ferrin a little bit of time to adapt to the CPL, scoring just once in the first eleven matches of the season. But he finished the year on a tear, as one of the most dynamic and dangerous attackers in the CPL down the stretch, finishing with a team-leading eight goals, and adding three assists.

Ferrin’s adaption to the league will certainly provide hope for many other League1 Ontario players, or from the many other provincial leagues under the League1 umbrella, that now have a clear and attainable pathway in their development.

“I think in any semi-professional league in the world it’s tough to make a jump to a different country going from a semi-pro to a professional league,” said Ferrin. “There’s just that obvious lack of, I guess you can say, trust that the league is at the level it needs to be to respect what a player has done in that league. So I think the gap that the CPL has closed with giving Canadian players a real opportunity to make a jump has allowed League1 to flourish as well, because players know that there is a benefit in playing in a league like that where if you do well there’s an opportunity to take the next step.”

That same motivation to get to the next level exists for coaches as well, and Ferrin has seen firsthand all the tireless work that Gheisar has put in to be the best at what he does, regardless of whether the team is winning or losing. The fact that Gheisar was able to turn around one of the league’s most disappointing teams in 2022 almost immediately demonstrates just how much that work is paying off.

“If anything he was up against it this year with just the fact of having such a new team; that’s not easy no matter who you are as a coach, to come in and have to deal with 16-17 new guys and a preseason that only gives you a couple of months to try to completely rebrand what you’re doing,” he said. 

It was also special for Ferrin to get to continue to work with assistant coach Feliciano, who he says has an incredible knowledge of the sport which is now getting more exposure at the professional level.

“It’s great to show the pathway is not just for players but there are also coaches in this country who have been part of the game for a long time, understand the game very well and deserve an opportunity to coach at the professional level,” said Ferrin. 

With year one being an emphatic success for Ferrin and Gheisar, attention now turns to setting the bar even higher in 2024.  After what they did in their first season in the CPL, however, few will doubt their ability to continue progressing.

“I couldn’t have expected more,” said Gheisar of his first season in the league. “I was proud of my own work and just like I said about Mass Ferrin, it made me believe that Mass Ferrin — when he came to life and so did Riley — it gave me additional reassurance that they are who they are and I’m glad they delivered. But even for myself, I believed in myself but to see it come to life it gave me, and hopefully all these new owners that are looking for coaches, the assurance that there are a lot of good coaches in Canada.” 

Highlights courtesy OneSoccer