March 15, 2021...Dominic Samuel's 'exhausting' story of lumberyards & L1O (from League1 Ontario website)

   
  
Dominic Samuel’s ‘exhausting’ story of lumberyards & L1O
By Marty Thompson, 03/15/21, 1:30PM EDT

For Dominic Samuel, Saturdays spent playing for Sigma FC were much more than putting in a 90-minute 
performance on the pitch.

The 26-year-old Toronto native has made the jump from League1 Ontario to the professional game 
seamlessly, emerging as a starter on former Sigma coach Bobby Smyrniotis’ back-to-back Canadian 
Premier League champions Forge FC side after cracking its inaugural roster in 2019. Samuel, 
who can play any position across the backline, was also an integral part of Forge’s Concacaf League 
run last fall.

But those years spent in League1 Ontario before achieving professional success were tiring, to say 
the least. Samuel worked full-time in a lumberyard in Mississauga, Ont., while juggling training 
and Sigma matches, before joining Forge in 2019.

“Looking back, I’m not quite sure how I managed it,” Samuel told CanPL.ca with a chuckle. “Just being 
young and motivated. Soccer has always been that getaway anyways so it somehow didn’t feel 
like draining.”

During the week, Samuel would work 10-hour days, most of which culminated in a training session 
(also in Mississauga) as late as 10:00 pm. He would then head back across the GTA to grab a few hours 
of sleep, only for the cycle to repeat.

“It was excruciating,” Samuel recounted. “There’s no point of me going back (home) to Scarborough, 
right? Younger teams would be training before so I would just wait in the car and grab a bite 
to eat or something – Bobby would see me and say something like ‘What are you doing?’”

Samuel detailed his time in L1O, and juggling lumberyard work with soccer, with the Canadian Premier 
League's Anthony Totera last Spring.

Samuel said his future Forge coach was bewildered that he would play in Sigma FC games on Saturdays, 
which were followed by five-hour shifts in the yard.

“The last half hour of those games were ridiculous. I couldn’t feel my legs at points and Bobby 
could tell,” Samuel said. “Luckily Sigma was a good team so we’d often get out to a big lead 
in the first 30 minutes of the game, which was perfect for me – get that sub off at the 60th minute.”

Before the Canadian Premier League arrived, Samuel sat in limbo – as did many of the 100-odd 
domestic CPLers before professional soccer came to Canada. Samuel picked up the lumberyard job 
after his mother lost her job.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on with soccer at that time,” Samuel said of the late 2010s, when 
whispers of an incoming professional Canadian soccer league were abundant. “We needed some form 
of income if it wasn’t unemployment. I had to do something and that job was just a good day 
to stay fit. It’s not like I’m sitting at a desk and doing absolutely nothing, which would drive 
me insane.”

Samuel managed to put together an incredibly successful L1O career despite the staggering amount 
of work outside of it. Named League1 Ontario Defender of the Year in both 2015 and 2018, Samuel’s 
legacy in L1O recently earned him a spot on League1 Ontario’s All-Time Best XI.

Samuel, who had a brief stint in 2016 with USL side Rochester Rhinos, said that off-the-pitch 
work ethic translated to success with Sigma and beyond as one of 40 former L1O players to make 
the jump to Canadian Premier League football in the past three seasons.

“I just got the desire to work a lot harder than I would have in the past. My work habits are 
so much better than they were in college or even before,” Samuel said.

“You get to experience what it’s like to put in the work, if that makes sense – suddenly two training 
sessions a day don’t seem so bad.” 

back to 2021 League 1 Ontario Men's index

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