October 19, 2009

    I got a call on Sunday the 11th from Saskatchewan asking if I would be interested in coming out. They informed me that their punter and kick-off guy had injured his neck in a game the week before. They told me that they would have me on their practice squad right away and that I would basically be trying out during my first week. After careful consideration of the costs and benefits, (school, coaching, clothing line, social life vs. playing professional football and continuing my dream) I decided that the CFL would definitely be my best option.

    I hopped on the plane to Regina, Saskatchewan Tuesday afternoon, landed around midnight, and had practice at 7 a.m. the next morning in icy, 15 degree F winds. Hardly ideal try-out conditions, but I was not one bit discouraged. They brought in another kicker as well, from the Edmonton Eskimos that I have been in friendly competition with.  After the first two days of working with the team, the special teams coach told me that he was "extraordinarily impressed" with my kicking.  The smile on my face that ensued was bitter-sweet however.

    The reason is because the CFL has to have a certain ratio of Canadians to imports on the roster at any given time. Ideally, CFL teams like to use two Canadian kickers. If they do use an import kicker, they have them do all 3.  Saskatchewan's kicker however, has had a lot of success the last few years. This puts the program in a bind if they want to use me as their punter and kick-off guy as they would have to deactivate a current import on this roster. Hopefully I can continue to prove myself as enough of a commodity in order to get some playing time.  Only time will tell and hopefully by the end of this coming week, I will have a clearer picture of what is to come.

Louie

Comments: