Shaftesbury Titan Obonde Steps Up to Sign with Blazers Soccer
The CMU Men's Soccer program is very pleased to announce the commitment of Geno Obonde for the 2024-25 MCAC season. The Shaftesbury High School product is taking his talents on the pitch and in the classroom across the street to CMU's campus where he will join the Blazers soccer family.
The fourth signing of the offseason for the CMU men's soccer program, Blazers co-head coaches Anderson Pereira and Gode Katembo are hard at work rounding out their roster for the upcoming campaign. Obonde adds some more versatility to the team makeup, having slotted in primarily up front throughout his career, but has more recently moved to the backline as a steady defending presence for the Titans. The Blazers' newest recruit was the second-leading scorer for his Shaftesbury squad in his first varsity season of Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association (WYSA) indoor league, and this past March wrapped up his final season there, helping the team to a Boys Championship Group semi-finals appearance, narrowly missing out on a spot in the finals thanks to their West-Winnipeg rival across the Assiniboine River Sturgeon Heights Huskies.
Following in his mother's footsteps in taking post-secondary education at CMU, Obonde is planning to enter the science program, and is specifically interested in bio research. Through his studies at Shaftesbury, he was able to take the PTEC technology program in software development in partnership with the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology and hopes to continue that curiosity into the biology field at CMU. Taking his skills to the university level is exciting to Obonde, and is looking forward to being in a competitive environment where you have to push yourself in order to win and succeed both on the pitch and in the classroom. Apart from soccer, Geno also enjoys competing in volleyball, as well as swimming in order to stay active throughout the year.
CMU Blazers' co-head coach Anderson Pereira is heading home from Lisbon, Portugal from being a part of the first ever class of Level 1 Futsal Coaching Licence training delivered by the Portuguese Football Federation in partnership with Canada Soccer and Futsal Canada. Blazers Athletics caught up with him to get his thoughts on his program's latest signing: "Geno is a great player with a lot of potential to help us this season. Being part of the team this year will be a great opportunity for him to adapt to the university level and show everyone what he can do. We are excited to have him join our roster and we are sure that he will fit in well and feel at home from day one."
The Blazers will begin their training in earnest soon looking towards the 2024-25 outdoor season, but before league games begin the team is excited to head back to Red Deer, Alberta for a tournament weekend against some of the top competition from the ACAC. Last year the team went a perfect 3-0 on the trip in preparation for their season at home.
The winner of the Manitoba Collegiate Athletics Conference earns the right to represent the province at the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (CCAA) National Championships at the conclusion of the outdoor season, which the Blazers look to accomplish now entering the fourth year that the MCAC has been fully included in the Canada-wide conference. Blazers Men's Soccer last hoisted the provincial trophy in the fall of 2018 in Pereira's first season at the helm, while their most recent Men's Futsal championship was in the spring of 2020.
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