Golden Hawk alumni & friends of the football program,
This newsletter is brought to you by our great friends and the best movers, AMJ Campbell.
We trust that you and your families are all still doing well as we close out the fall and enter the Holiday Season. As we say goodbye to 2020, it is safe to say that it wasn’t just any other year that will blend with all the others. It will always be remembered for the global pandemic and for the impact it had on families, business, sports and much more. What I am very hopeful for is that 2020 will be remembered as the reason for some great positive change within all of your lives. It may seem difficult to find the positives as we are still in the middle of the pandemic, but as always, adversity can be a very good thing as long as we are willing to learn, and adapt from it.
Our football program this fall obviously had the misfortune of not being able to play a season and meaningful football games. That being said, there are many positives if we look deeper. Our players had the opportunity to spend more time on their academics and I’m excited and expecting to see a higher team GPA than ever. Our coaching staff, you will read later on in this newsletter, has been given time to put together one of the greatest recruiting classes in years. Together, we have adjusted to a new virtual world and learned new ways of communicating – some of these new techniques will be used long after this pandemic is behind us.
Wishing you all a healthy and happy Holiday Season and may 2021 bring everyone energy, positivity and please OUA football!!
More Laurier Football Headlines:
· “Fill The Truck” 2020 Clothing Drive
o In a global pandemic, we can’t play football games, we can’t practice with equipment on, we can’t have team meetings in person, but what we can do is continue to be great community members in the Waterloo Region and giveback to those in need.
o With the help of many, including our great partners AMJ Campbell, we filled a moving truck with donated clothes and delivered it to Thrift on Kent.
o A big thank you to Darren Stevenson of 519 Sports Online for capturing this great day!
· Academic All-Canadians
o Congratulations to our 8 football players who were Academic All-Canadians for the 2019-20 season.
o https://www.laurierathletics.com/createarticle.php?ID=10757
· Great article on 1st year Kicker Dawson Hodge
o https://www.laurierathletics.com/createarticle.php?ID=10747
· Great article on RB Kevin Wong
o https://www.laurierathletics.com/createarticle.php?ID=10764
· FB Mario Villamizar
o Congratulations to former Golden Hawk FB Mario Villamizar who recently resigned with the BC Lions.
· 2021 Recruiting Class
o One of the benefits of no season this fall is the attention we have been able to give to recruiting. We intend to bring in a recruiting class of around 25 players and amazingly we are at 19 outstanding Student Athlete commits already.
o We are confident that this recruiting class will go down as one of our best ever:
1. WR Layomi Ojutalayo – Brampton, ON
2. WR Ryan Speight – Brantford, ON
3. OL Tyler Potvin – Milton, ON
4. WR Jake Bennett – Burlington, ON
5. WR Tyler Lutz – Burlington, ON
6. LB Jayden Griffiths – Mississauga, ON
7. DE/LB Demarco Lawrence – Hamilton, ON
8. OL Jordan Sye – Port Coquitlam, BC
9. DB Tristan Miller – Milton, ON
10. DB Davies Mitchell – Chilliwack, BC
11. LB Alex Provan – Burlington, ON
12. DL Gabriel Burke-Burfoot – Kingston, ON
13. DB Justin Cummings – Brampton, ON
14. LB Ethan Rabiner – North Vancouver, BC
15. K/P Tyeson Hunt – Kingston, ON
16. RB Mason Watson – Newmarket, ON
17. FB Marcus Tenney – Barrie, ON
18. ATH Jeremiah Toussaint-Ferguson – Waterloo, ON
19. OL Daniel Crowe – Hamilton, ON
· Talks with Hawks
o Staff Member Dave Morrissey continues to put together terrific articles in his Talk with Hawks features.
o 27 great interviews completed. See the list of interviews below and to view them all go here: https://laurierfootball.com/talks-with-hawks/
| 1) Scott Hutter 2) Chris Ackie 3) Dave Montoya 4) Rohan Thompson 5) Chris Vlowianitis 6) Kickers Roundtable 7) Stacey Coray 8) Tim Bisci 9) Ese Mrabure-Ajufo | 10) Chris Reddy & Matt Fischer 11) Bizarre Plays 12) Hugh Lawson 13) Superstitions 14) Agro Brothers 15) 2019 Season 16) Anthony Maggiacomo 17) Ken Evraire 18) Ryan Pyear | 19) Dillon Campbell 20) Andre Talbot 21) Shamawd Chambers 22) Coach Tom Arnott 23) Sukhneet Kahlon 24) The King City 4 25) Josh & Jesse Alexander 26) Kojo Millington 27) Jamie Lalonde |
· Laurier Football “Chalk Talk Podcast”
o Thank you to one of our players, Full Back Liam Spencer, who has put together a great biweekly podcastand graphic artist Defensive End Alfred Green.
o To listen to any of the first 11 podcasts:https://laurierfootball.com/podcast/
Wishing all of you and your families and wonderful Holiday Season!
Please Stay Well & Go Hawks Go!
Michael