AU business student Charlie Trafford trades in his soccer kit to co-found Trafford Farms
Not all successful career paths are a straight line. Just ask Charlie Trafford, the former pro soccer player from Calgary-turned mushroom farmer.
Soccer was always Trafford’s first passion and the reason he left home at age 16 to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy. Just when he had his sights set on a career as a pro, he suffered a serious knee injury and was released from the team.
Rather than call it quits on his dream, Trafford opted instead for an academic path to play soccer. That decision would change Trafford’s life—on and off the pitch. During the next decade, not only would he excel at sport during a lengthy pro career, but everything he learned at school in Athabasca University’s Bachelor of Commerce program helped prepare him for an unlikely second career as one half of a brother-sister entrepreneurial duo specializing in locally grown, sustainable produce.
“It’s a pretty crazy shift to go from professional soccer to growing food,” he concedes.
Setting a goal and sticking with it
For as long as Trafford could remember, soccer was always plan A for the future, so when he injured his knee, it wasn’t just a physical setback. His entire world changed.
“I had to reevaluate what I wanted to do and my plans,” he recalls.
Even though the opportunity with the Whitecaps closed, he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to competitive soccer. So at age 18, he moved east to Toronto to study at York University while also playing soccer for the York Lions of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) league. His play during that one season with the team earned him several accolades, including a second-team all-star nod from the CIS and a first-team all-star among university players in Ontario.
His play also opened doors to a tryout in Europe with De Graafschap football club in the Netherlands. Even though his parents always encouraged him to excel academically and worried about his career prospects later in life, the tryout was too good an opportunity to pass up. Once again, he changed course.
“I promised my parents, I'm going to take six months off from school, do these tryouts, and see what happens,” he explains.
Playing pro soccer in Europe
Trafford made the team and eventually backed up his promise to his parents by taking a few online courses through York. That first attempt at online learning didn’t go as planned or mesh with his lifestyle as a pro athlete. “It was a disaster,” he says.
After playing professionally in Europe for several seasons and travelling to numerous countries, he decided to give education another attempt—this time through Athabasca University.
“I could learn what I wanted. I could develop, do my degree, and be anywhere in the world,” he says. “When I found Athabasca, it worked perfectly for what I was doing.”
Balancing studies with his pro career wasn’t easy, but gradually he plugged away, course by course during his downtime. Business felt like the right fit academically so he could pursue professional interests that leaned on his skills as a problem-solver and help others.
Local solutions to global food problems
During a Christmas break from play and studies several years ago, Trafford would experience another life-changing moment. Back in Calgary with his family, he remembers having a conversation with his sister, Sya Trafford, about the bland flavour of fruits and veggies available during the winter compared to what he was used to in Europe.
“You eat the tomatoes from the grocery store and they’re terrible. They have no taste.”
While Trafford says he’s never been obsessive about food, good nutrition mattered to him, as did who was growing the food. The differences between produce in Europe and Canada were stark as he and Sya talked about feeling disconnected from where their food grows. The siblings, who are three years apart in age and have always shared similar interests, decided they should work together to do something about it, even in a small way.
“I’m not delusional. I know you can’t grow tomatoes outside in Calgary every day of the year,” he says. “But we’re an innovative nation and we need to start utilizing that and pushing it harder, because I think we’ve become a bit passive here about the state of food.”
Planting seeds of success at Trafford Farms
The siblings’ business plans would evolve over five or six years, but by late 2023, they founded Trafford Farms and decided to grow mushrooms. Trafford was back in Calgary by this time, playing soccer with the Calvary FC of the Canadian Premier League, while Sya initially continued in her job in Vancouver with KPMG.
In the early days, the Traffords learned every aspect of the business, including how to grow and harvest mushrooms in a shipping container. They scrubbed floors, handled sales, and proved to themselves and others that they “understood the market.”
Within six months, they had to expand to a second container as their mushrooms—including varieties such as lion’s mane, chesnut, king trumpet, and oyster—were a hot commodity. “We were in 50 grocery stores, pushing 100 restaurants, expanding at a speed that we couldn’t comprehend.”
In other words, Trafford was suddenly excelling in a career he didn’t anticipate, leaning on lessons learned at a university program he never would have contemplated as a teen dreaming of scoring a big goal.
After some initial success with mushrooms, Trafford Farms expanded by acquiring Deep Water Farms and its 3,200-square-metre (35,000-sq.-ft.) greenhouse, producing leafy greens, salads, and herbs. Expanding their product lines through a business with established clients made sense for their overall mission of growing sustainable local food.
This past spring, Trafford announced his retirement from soccer after 12 years to pursue his business full time. The family operation took another huge leap forward by acquiring a 5,600-sq.-m (60,000-sq.-ft.) greenhouse near Didsbury, Alta. The new state-of-the-art facility has allowed Trafford Farms to scale up and become a larger player in Western Canada, fulfilling a growing demand for hyperlocal food. The company now employs about 20 people, including students from Alberta post-secondaries.
After years living abroad and observing modern greenhouse facilities in the Netherlands produce delicious local food, Trafford says he sees some similarities in Alberta beyond plenty of sunshine that make greenhouses a viable option.
Alberta is a very innovative, forward-thinking province. I think there’s the talent and the mentality here—this kind of entrepreneurial mentality that is really cool. Coming back, the amount of people who have offered help to be part of it is really amazing.
Yes, Alberta is cold, and greenhouses require a lot of energy during winter. But it’s also home to a thriving energy sector. If they can do it here, they can do it anywhere.
“We need to test ourselves, and I think Alberta is a very cool place to do it.”
AU helps make it possible
Trafford credits the Bachelor of Commerce program for giving him the knowledge and tools to get him to where he is today. Now, especially here in Canada, more and more teammates are balancing school, business, and other passions, he says.
It prepared me for this—or as prepared as you can be for launching a business—but I probably couldn’t have done it without AU.
The rapid growth and success has forced Trafford to put his AU studies on temporary pause, but he knows the program and AU will always be there when he needs them. As education and career journeys go, his truly is like no other—and he hasn’t lost sight of his goals.
“I’m still plugging away. I genuinely do want to finish—and I promised my parents one day that I would finish.”
Soccer, business school, and entrepreneurial adventures
Watch Trafford talk about his journey in pro soccer, AU, and his new farming startup.