Huskies striker Tao Hein approaching record in sophomore season

Three years out of the Canada West playoff picture, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s soccer team needed a spark this season.

It has also been 12 years since the program’s lone conference title in 2014 and a run of playoff appearances which stretched into the early 2020s. The Huskies were determined to pull themselves out of the basement of the Canada West standings entering this season.

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“One thing we really wanted to find is we wanted players that wanted to be Huskies,” said head coach Bryce Chapman.

“That was a big look when we went through the last two years of the recruiting cycle. We want people to come in and be part of something bigger than them as individuals.”

Enter homegrown Saskatoon product Tao Hein, who has played a key role in getting the Huskies back in contention for a Canada West playoff spot.

In just his second year of U SPORTS eligibility, the Holy Cross High School graduate has quickly become one of the most feared strikers across the conference.

A national champion with the Saskatoon U17 Alliance program, Hein has parlayed that success locally into significant production for a Huskies team hungry to play playoff matches again.

“Being able to do it for the city, for the hometown, it just means a lot,” Hein said. “I’m just so grateful I could do it at the youth level and then I could come in and do it at this level as well.”

Hein dressed in two games for the Huskies during his rookie season in 2025, but his true breakout has come this fall with a team-best six goals in nine games.

That production has Hein tied for third in Canada West scoring, which Chapman said reflects the teenager’s drive to deliver timely goals.

“The thing that really sets Tao apart is that he wants to win so badly,” Chapman said.

“In training he has got that edge, he’s got that compete. He wants to win everything and I think that really starts to separate him from other strikers from across the conference.”

Hein has only been kept off the scoresheet four times this season for Saskatchewan and has converted on 37.5 per cent of the shots he’s put on goal.

“He’s just started to really grow into a really strong young man,” Chapman said. “A player that’s starting to find different ways to grow his game. He’s just one of those guys that finds the back of the net and you don’t ask questions.”

With four games left in the regular season for the Huskies, Hein is on the doorstep of putting together one of the best single-season performances in program history.

Hein is one goal away from cracking the team’s top-10 list for single-season goal scoring, while he’s two goals away from tying Jerson Barandica-Hamilton for the fifth-highest scoring season ever for the Huskies at eight goals.

He said while his main focus is on picking up late-season wins, his mind has thought about joining the Huskies record book.

“Obviously, I think about it once in a while,” Hein said. “It’s kind of hard not to, but man, I just want to get on the field and play. The things will come, the goals will come if you just play.”

Away from the Huskies, Hein also had a breakout season playing in the Alberta Premier League with the Edmonton BTB program, where he led the league in scoring with 12 goals in 14 games.

That included a four-goal performance in the league final on Aug. 7, which Edmonton BTB won 7-0 over Callies United.

According to Chapman, the biggest factor in Hein’s success has been allowing him to play free and loose, while taking away some of the pressure he faces as a top goal scorer.

“The big challenge for him is not feeling the weight of that on his shoulders,” Chapman said.

“The guys around him have really supported him and made sure that he doesn’t feel like everything has to come on him. I think when he’s relaxed and enjoying his football, he becomes an extremely dangerous and exciting player.”

University of Saskatchewan Huskies sophomore star Tao Hein led Edmonton BTB to an Alberta Premier League title in August with four goals in the final game. (Carter Berge/Huskie Athletics)

That mindset change has made a big difference for the Saskatoon product, who is also now comfortable leaning on his Huskies teammates to help drive the offence.

“After having a pretty good League 1 season in Alberta, I felt like there was a lot of pressure on myself,” Hein said. “I was like, ‘I need to do this, I need to do that.’ This year, I’m just playing. There’s no pressure, I’m just doing what I love.”

The Huskies hold a 4-6-0 record as they enter the final two weeks of the regular season, placing them fifth in the Prairie Division, with a gap to make up against the Alberta Golden Bears for the final playoff spot.

Chapman said the goal has been getting the program back to playing games which matter in late October.

“I’m quite pleased with what our group has done so far,” Chapman said. “We’ve got a really young group, but they’ve adapted well to Canada West and really feel that there’s a strong buy-in to everyone’s role right now.”

While the Huskies have reached four wins for the first time since the 2019 season, Hein added the bar has been raised and their group isn’t satisfied with just being in the conversation for the post-season.

“The program hasn’t been where it should be at in the past few years,” Hein said.

“I think that when you keep going on these stretches where things aren’t good, I feel like everyone gets down. But it’s just a thing where you’ve got to come in and you really got to believe.”

It’s a big weekend ahead for both the Huskies men’s and women’s soccer teams, with the men’s squad set to host the Mount Royal Cougars on Friday at noon and the Calgary Dinos on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

As for the Huskies women’s team, they are coming off a 0-0 tie against Mount Royal and a 2-0 loss to Calgary last weekend to drop their record on the season to 5-3-2.

Ranked fourth in the Prairie Division, the Huskies will face the MacEwan Griffins on Saturday and the Alberta Pandas on Sunday, with both games being noon starts at Griffiths Stadium.