Valour’s ‘Yukon Joe’ travels unusual path to CPL

Joe Hanson always gets a reaction from teammates when they hear where he’s from.

“It’s very impressive. I was completely perplexed when I heard that he was from Yukon,” said Valour FC goalie Jonathan Viscosi after Thursday’s training session at the Winnipeg Soccer Federation South complex.

“I was like, ‘How did anybody find out about you?”

It was announced Monday the 20-year-old forward, who is referred to as ‘Yukon Joe’ by his new coworkers, signed with Winnipeg’s professional soccer club after several weeks on a trial invite.

The product of Whitehorse spent the past two seasons with Vancouver Whitecaps 2 of MLS Next Pro where he became the first player from Canada’s smallest territory to turn pro.

He’s also the first one from Yukon to join the Canadian Premier League (CPL).

“I’ve met people in the country who don’t even know where the Yukon is. Usually, for the most part, people are just super interested about it and curious what it’s like,” said Hanson.

“They have lots of questions, and to me, some of them are a little bit silly like do you live in igloos? Do you have Wi-Fi? Do you have cars? Stuff like that.”

His parents — Jake and Sarah — met in Texas where they played college soccer. They ended up moving to Whitehorse, where Sarah was originally from, and got their son into the sport at a young age. With the town having a population of around 30,000, Hanson spent his early years travelling all over the place on weekends to play against higher competition. When he was nine, he was scouted at a tournament in Alaska by a team in Seattle called Crossfire Premier. After helping the program win three state titles, Hanson moved to Seattle to live with a teammate when he was 13.

Two years later, he was on the move to Victoria where he won a provincial championship with the Vancouver Island Wave program before getting picked up by the Whitecaps Academy.

The 6-3 attacker ended up making 37 appearances for Whitecaps 2 and scored three goals.

“No one from Yukon had signed in the pros before, so, I would almost wonder sometimes, ‘Is it even possible?’ But I always just knew that’s what I wanted to do and I thought I had the tools and ability to do it. To be able to do it at the young age of 18, I was over the moon,” said Hanson.

“I was so happy, and in a way, a bit relieved, too. I almost wanted to do it so bad that I was scared not to. I was excited to be the first and I’m hoping it opens doors for younger players behind me coming up.”

The CPL requires clubs to play their domestic under-21 players for a combined minimum of 2,000 minutes in a season. Valour head coach/general manager Phillip Dos Santos feels Hanson will help them not only reach that quota but also contribute in a meaningful way.

“You look at his maturity and how he handles himself not only on the field but off the field, you see someone that had to go against the odds to make it,” said Dos Santos. “That brings resiliency and a behaviour where the ups and downs become very natural for you and I think that’s very important as a professional athlete. You can’t get too low or too high and he carries that already.”

Valour kick off the 2024 season on the road Sunday against Vancouver FC at 6 p.m. CT.

New team not shying away from the past

Valour were a league-worst 6-8-14 in 2023 and have never reached the post-season.

The many new faces on the team have nothing to do with that, but that doesn’t mean they’re ignoring the franchise’s less than stellar history — just ask veteran goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi.

The 33-year-old from Ottawa is getting set to make his CPL debut after playing in Finland and Sweden since 2020.

“It absolutely needs to be recognized and acknowledged. I hope everybody who’s come here is aware of that, and if you’ve committed to this project, you’re committed to the responsibility of trying to turn it around,” said Viscosi.

“This city has far surpassed my expectations. It’s really made an impression on me in terms of the mentality of the people. We got here in early February and you see everyone early in the mornings rolling up their sleeves and cleaning their cars to get to work. You have to deal with tough conditions and you see how friendly and encouraging everybody is here. It’s a really strong community and there’s so many aspects that tie to a sports team… There’s not much expectations on us from the media and people involved in the league and that gives us freedom… We just have to be effective, go and get results, compete, and be like the people of Winnipeg. We’ll roll our sleeves up and get to work.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

X: @TaylorAllen31