When recognizing excellence on the soccer pitch at UNBC, Scott Debianchi’s name is at the top of the list.
The Prince George product is the latest member to be inducted into the university’s Wall of Honour.
Once UNBC became a two-sport school adding Men’s and Women’s soccer in 2007, then coach Sonny Pawar wasted little time in shaping his roster to be among the elite in the BC Collegiate Athletics Association.
In an interview with MyPGNow.com, Debianchi noted while he didn’t attend university right away after graduating from PGSS, making the jump to UNBC was the right move.
“I was always decent at soccer. My dad coached me as a kid and he put a ton of time into me on the soccer field because that was his passion and I kind of rolled into it pretty skilled. I joined the team and I was already an impact player right at the start.”
Even as a freshman, Debianchi was no stranger to scoring, notching three goals while earning the UNBC Most Valuable Player award while also collecting a BCCAA Second Team All-Star.
The young program endured some humble beginnings but there were plenty of highlights including the team’s very first victory.
“After we won that game, the team celebrated and it was actually pretty funny. We had the crappiest season ever but we had won one game and the whole team was the happiest I had ever seen people,” said Debianchi.
During his second season, Debianchi was routinely matched up against some of the opposition’s best players, often coming out on the winning side of those battles.
“There was no team that I was afraid of, there was no team that really worried me and I knew that we had the skill to be the best and it was just putting that together. I loved travelling, that was always fun but busing takes a toll on the body.”
Year three saw Debianchi continue to re-write the record books as the center back won his third consecutive team MVP award and was the first UNBC soccer player ever to be named a First Team All-Star.
The Timberwolves reached new heights in his fourth season as the program advanced to the BCCAA Provincial Final earning a silver medal.
Debianchi mentioned while they didn’t win it all, the club achieved some pretty wild results on the pitch.
“We became so close and we started winning. We got that winning feeling and we beat Capilano 1-0 and then we went on to play Douglas College who was a goliath of a team. They were the best. They were number-one-rated, they were the bee’s knees, a bye into the semi-finals and we beat them and it was like we had won the World Cup at that point.”
“Our core eleven or twelve guys were extremely strong. It’s such a team sport that you need a core eleven and without that it’s super-hard. When we were first starting out it’s kind of hard to have that and depth is where we struggled in the first couple years.”
“We had seven or eight good players but then the outside of our field was a little weaker but that year we had an unreal eleven.”
In 2011-12, the league rebranded and became the Pacific Western Athletic Association.
The PGSS graduate put a cap on his UNBC tenure with a fifth consecutive T-Wolves MVP award as well as his third straight First Team All-Star nod.
Debianchi’s 62 career games are fourteen more than anyone else in UNBC’s collegiate history, and his nine goals are second all-time on that list.
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