Brett Levis has experienced more than his share of sadness, tragedy and pain in his 27 years roaming this planet.

There was the death of his mother when he was 15 and all the emotional struggles of working through that. Later, just as he had reached the highest moment in his soccer career in making his MLS debut with the Vancouver Whitecaps, he suffered a torn ACL that robbed him of a year of his prime.

Still, there has been joy in his life, too, among the highlights his days as a star with the University of Saskatchewan to becoming the first born-and-raised soccer player from the province to turn pro when he signed with the Whitecaps in 2014.

And it’s the experience of trucking through all of this – the good and the bad, the highs and the lows – that has formed the rock-solid foundation that is Levis’ basic approach to soccer and to life.

“My goal with anything I do is to be positive,” began Levis in a 40-minute chat with valourfootball.club for our latest ‘Beyond The Pitch’ feature. “I want to be happy, and bring the people around me up if they’re down. I want to be as positive as I can as much as I can.

“This might sound cliché, but at the end of the day if you’re not happy what’s the point? Life is good. You have to look at the positives, especially with everything that’s going on right now. If you focus on what you don’t have you’ll never have enough in life.”

Let’s be clear: Levis isn’t spitting out these life lessons with the fervour of a pastor at his pulpit. He delivers his message in a matter-of-fact tone that matches his personality.

There’s a maturity to him, a true awareness of not just his bigger picture, but that of those around him.

And that, he believes, is something of which his mother would be most proud.

“I know she would be happy with how I am not just as a soccer player, but as a human and what I’ve done so far with my life,” Levis said.

“And she’ll continue to push me for the rest of my life, too.”

Leanne Levis was a fighter. Brett saw it in her every day, and especially so when she twice battled cancer – succumbing the second time when her son was just in high school.

Those represented both tragic times and difficult moments.

“It’s something I wish no one would have to go through,” he said. “At the end of the day she taught me so much in those 15 years that I can live with for the rest of my life. Instead of looking at it as a tragedy, I look at it more as how she would want me to live my life, how she would want me to behave, how she would want me to continue to pursue my dreams and ambitions. I try to look at life that way as much as possible.

“There was so much that went on in such a short period of time. My dad had just lost his wife, his best friend. My sister was 16 and didn’t have a female person, her mom, in her life. There was just so much chaos at that time. And don’t get me wrong, I went through some really tough times in high school. But I focussed on the long-term goal and took it upon myself to have responsibility for my actions.”

His mother’s inspiration isn’t just symbolized in his daily approach to life. It’s there, too, on his left forearm, where he has a tattoo of a rosary featuring his mother’s name and birthdate.

“She supported me so much,” said Levis. “At any age she would talk to me after practice or games… I knew my ability based on how she looked at me. I could tell she thought I had something special. That, of course, pushed me. She was the No. 1 person to say follow your dreams and don’t give up and continue to fight.

“She had tons of battles in her own life, having cancer twice and beating breast cancer and then having it come back a couple of years later and battling that for five-six-seven months. She had so much fight and instilled that in me. I still look at everything in life as a blessing and try to find the positives. It’s so easy to dwell on things. Some people get focussed on the negative, but I think that approach is part of why I am where I am today.”

A star at the U of S, the road Levis took to the MLS was hardly common. He didn’t attend an academy, nor had he been identified for a national team in his younger days.

After his sophomore season with the Huskies he wanted to keep chasing his dream by playing further in the summer. Bryce Chapman, his coach at Saskatchewan, helped him land a look from the Victoria Highlanders, then in the PDL. He was then identified by members of the Whitecaps, where he played the next three seasons with their Under-23 team and then Whitecaps FC2.

In August of 2016 Levis signed a first-team deal with Vancouver and made his MLS debut in October against the Portland Timbers as a substitute.

“When I was growing up and then with the Huskies and getting recognized for individual accomplishments… winning those things, they felt like an expectation for me from my mom,” said Levis. “She had that belief in me.

“But making my MLS debut, that was on a whole other level. I had a feeling she was watching me. As I stepped on the field I was so proud of myself, but also so blessed to have this opportunity and emotional because I know I wouldn’t have been able to have that moment without her.”

Again, though, more pain.

Levis tore his ACL in his debut, with the injury and the rehab subsequently costing him all of 2017.

“I broke down after getting the news that it was a long-term injury,” he said. “It was such an extreme low after having such an extreme high. But after taking a day or two I was over it. It was, ‘It happened. I’m going to recover. I’m going to crush every single day and come back fitter, stronger faster.’

“I had my Whitecaps debut jersey in my closet. One day I decided to hang it up and I looked at it every single day as part of the motivation for my rehab. It was such an accomplishment, something that I’m so proud of that no one can take away from me.

“That’s one of my strengths, being able to put things behind me as fast as I can, move on and stay positive.”

All this makes up part of the message Levis delivers whenever he speaks to soccer youth often in his home province.

It’s about perseverance and dedication. It’s about resiliency. And, most of all, it’s about believing in yourself.

“I didn’t take the ‘normal’ route to make it to a professional league,” he said. “After I signed my MLS contract I would get questions like, ‘Why weren’t you part of this team?’ Or, ‘Why weren’t you on the U-18s, the U-19s, the U-20s? Where have you been?’ My response was always there’s a lot of good undiscovered players on the Prairies.

“And so when I speak to kids I like to remind them that don’t think if you’re 18-19-20 years old that you don’t have a shot anymore because you didn’t come through an academy or weren’t a part of a national team. Sometimes it just takes a little more time. If you want to chase something, you have to try and crush every single day.

“I think I’m a perfect example of that.”