Canada Soccer announced on Wednesday its 50-player provisional squad for the Canadian men's team that will be participating in next month's Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying tournament held in Mexico. Among the many names on the list? Pacific FC's young trio of Terran Campbell, Noah Verhoeven, and Kadin Chung, alongside newcomer Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and former players Emile Legault and David Norman Jr. Pacific FC's commitment to youth products from the Vancouver Island and Vancouver area is a cornerstone for the club, of course. Their "Trust the Kids" mantra is a key club message, backed by an overwhelmingly disproportional but positive show of faith towards affording young players meaningful playing time. And, with another disproportionally high metric in their favour – more players named to the provisional squad than all other CPL clubs combined – Pacific FC may soon be able to boast of their ability to get national team attention, too. Sure, one week before the tournament kicks off, Canada’s 50-man roster will be shaved down to just 20 players, and there are no guarantees that any CPL player even makes the final squad. RELATED READING: 8 CPL players named to preliminary Canada squad for Olympic qualifiers Regardless of final outcome, Pacific's brass knows that their commitment to young players, coupled with this most recent development highlighting that work with a Canadian national team consideration, will be a boost to their future recruiting efforts. "Already, we're seeing the outcome of what we did last year," Pacific FC CEO Rob Friend told CanPL.ca. "When we're talking to really young, talented players we're trying to recruit, they see what we've done and they see our actions are louder than our words. It's been an advantage in recruiting, and, honestly, the challenge going forward is continuing this rate of playing these players. "There are only so many young Canadian soccer players out there, so it's our job to search and find them, develop them, get them into our squads, play them, and then move them on. It's a cycle that needs to continue, and we're searching high and low for talent, but it's certainly made it easier when players see who we are, what we've done, and what we're about." Chung, Campbell, and Verhoeven were among Pacific FC's most important starters in 2019, with Campbell leading the team in goal-scoring, Chung impressing at right-back, and Verhoeven quietly putting in solid showings, enough to earn a Canadian national team camp invite in 2019. So, it's no surprise that Pacific FC is the most prominently featured CPL outfit in coach Mauro Biello's shortlist ... at least, not to Friend. "That's directly in line with our club's philosophy," he said of his team's young core. "We set out to be a roster out there that's not just extremely young, but young Canadians. We made it very clear from our club and from our ownership that we really want to develop these young Canadian players. "They need an opportunity to play and it shows that we gave them that opportunity – guys like Terran, Noah, Kadin, and Thomas, when they play, it's only going to strengthen the U-23 national team. We believe these are potential future full national team players as well. They took the opportunity, we gave them the chance, and it's been rewarded." Finding and developing those young players isn't just a philosophy here, though; it's backed in action. To that end, Friend is also proud to see his club's work coming to fruition through milestones like Wednesday's shortlist announcement. "When (Pacific FC President) Josh (Simpson) and I set out on this project, and invested significant capital into this project, there were two paths we could take; we could just try to take a path of experienced players to try and get results, or look at this project and ask what we're all about?" Friend explained. "Josh and I are former players and ambassadors for this game in Canada, and knowing what's out there from a talent perspective, we set out a club philosophy of finding and playing as many young Canadians as possible, and we're going to continue to do so. "We're absolutely very proud when we see our squad out there, and hopefully that translates into success for the U-23 team qualifying for the Olympics, to expose these players on the international level. That's our goal and we're doing everything we can to support that."

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