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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, April 26, 2013 | 36 Oakville Soccer Club players seeking pro contracts in Uruguay by Ryan Glassman Special To The Beaver Adam Bouchard knows how to make quite the first impression. Back in February, the 17-year-old Oakville native was taking part in his initial tryout session with the Defensor Sporting Club's U-17 soccer team. In his first intersquad game, he kept screaming for the ball but the members on his side, unsure of his abilities, refused to pass it to him. When one of his teammates sent in a cross, the ball ended up being knocked down by an opposing defender. Bouchard hustled to it, took a few strides and then blasted a top corner strike past the keeper. "It just felt really good to have put the ball in the back of the net when no one would give you it," said Bouchard, a member of the Oakville Soccer Club's senior men's team. "It was a good day to say the least." Bouchard wasn't the only player from the OSC looking to make an impact with Defensor, who play in the top league in Uruguay. Two of his senior men's teammates -- 21-yearold Marco Rodriguez and 16-year-old Nicolas Galvis -- also participated in the tryout period, which lasted two weeks. All three had the same goal: to join the organization and, one day, sign their first pro contracts. Rafael Carbajal, head coach of the OSC senior men's team and the club's coach development manger, spent the past year analyzing each player before making the decision to take them to Uruguay. "I wanted to make sure mentally they were prepared, they were passionate about it and that they had the desire to become professional players," said Carbajal, who played for Defensor as a youngster himself while growing up in the Oakville Soccer Club players Marco Rodriguez (left), Nicolas Galvis (second from right) and Adam Bouchard (right), pictured with Defensor Sporting's Fernando Curuchet (second left) and OSC coach development manager Rafael Carbajal have moved to Uruguay in a bid to land pro contracts. | photo courtesy of Oakville Soccer Club country. The three, who are all midfielders, spent the full two weeks training at the club's academy facility under the tutelage of Defensor director of player development Fernando Curuchet and the organization's coaching staff. On the last day of the tryout sessions, the trio received the news they were looking for: Rodriguez made the first reserve team, while Bouchard and Galvis were the newest members of the U-17 and U-16 squads, respectively. "Marco called me over to the car (outside the academy facility) while Rafa was sitting beside him and told me we made it. I said `No!'" said Bouchard, who, like Galvis, will not be able to sign a pro contract until he turns 18. "I gave see OSC on p.37