Pacific pathway leads to professional experience for defender duo

Langford, B.C. – March 20, 2025 – Pacific FC today announced the signing of defenders Will Edgson and Mattias ‘Rocco’ Hallam to development contracts for the upcoming 2025 Canadian Premier League (CPL) season.

Both players have come through Pacific’s full youth development pathway, starting with the Trident Development Program and leading to the Vancouver Island (VI) Wave program. Edgson and Hallam attend St. John’s Academy in Shawnigan Lake where they are part of the school’s soccer academy, which is also a partner of Pacific.

Edgson, 16, is a left back who signed a development contract with Pacific in the 2024 season. Along with central defender Hallam, 17, the pair impressed coaching staff over their rise through youth programming.

“We’ve been working with both Rocco and Will for five or six years now in our academy,” said James Merriman, Head Coach, Pacific FC. “They’ve both continued to develop their fundamentals, grown in size and become good athletes also. They have been training more regularly in our 1st Team environment and done well.”

Pacific FC have signed a total of three development contracts for the season; Edgson and Hallam join midfielder Mattias Vales. All three went on trial in January at Pacific FC’s partner club VfL Bochum in the German Bundesliga, to train with the club’s U21 side.

Edgson and Hallam continue to train with Wave and Pacific in the lead up to the season.

“Both players have played in all of our pre-season games and shown their qualities,” said Merriman.

Pacific FC will kick off their 2025 CPL campaign on Saturday, April 5, at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C.

Current 2025 Pacific FC Roster as of March 21, 2025:

Goalkeepers: Max Anchor, Sean Melvin

Defenders: Kadin Chung, Will Edgson, Christian Greco-Taylor, Mattias Hallam, Eric Lajeunesse, Pedro Machado, Georges Mukumbilwa, Aly Ndom, Juan Quintana, Fin Tugwell

Midfielders: Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt, Aidan Daniels, Daniel de Pauli, Sami Keshavarz, Matteo Schiavoni, Mattias Vales, Sean Young

Forwards: Marco Bustos, Josh Heard, Ronan Kratt, Emanuel Montejano, Dario Zanatta

Photos of Edgson and Hallam here. Photo credit: Sheldon Mack.

Stay tuned to pacificfc.ca and follow the club on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the latest news.

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ABOUT PACIFIC FOOTBALL CLUB

Founded in 2018, Pacific Football Club brings professional football to Vancouver Island. Playing out of Starlight Stadium in Langford, the club provides an outlet for Canadian soccer players to compete at the professional level of the sport on home soil through the Canadian Premier League.