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 and staying safe and healthy! Since returning from the Holiday Season up until this week, which is Reading Week, we have tried to have more structure and keep our Student Athletes busier. They have had three great virtual workouts a week from strength coach Jesse Collins on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On top of the workouts we have had Team Meetings every Monday, Offensive & Defensive Meetings on Tuesdays and some positional meetings throughout the rest of the week.
As part of our weekly Team Meetings we have added a great Alumni Guest Speaker portion. The fantastic Alumni listed below have come on to our team zoom meetings and spoke to the group and shared their stories and wisdom. This has definitely become the highlight of everyone’s week.
| Date | Speaker | Topic | |
| 1 | Oct 21, 2020 | Courtney Stephen | Money Matters |
| 2 | Nov 16, 2020 | Ian Troop | Leadership 101 |
| 3 | Dec 2, 2020 | Rohan Thompson | Social Justice |
| 4 | Jan 11, 2021 | Andrew Agro | Professionalism |
| 5 | Jan 18, 2021 | Ken Evraire | Moments |
| 6 | Jan 25, 2021 | Donnie Ruiz | Your Vision Needs More Grit |
| 7 | Feb 1, 2021 | Hugh Lawson | Being a Great Communicator |
| 8 | Feb 8, 2021 | Pete Izzio | True Wealth – Cultivating Your Network |
Outside of football our players continue to have all of their classes online in the virtual world. We are very proud of how they have adjusted to this way of learning and amazingly our Fall GPA was a full ½ GPA grade higher, as compared to the previous year when classes were in person.
Next week the players will return to a little bit different football experience, as Waterloo Region has entered into the Red Category for Covid-19. This category allows groups of 10 indoors and groups of 25 outdoors. Let’s all cross our fingers that case number continue to decrease and that we get a bit warmer weather to start to melt the mountain of snow at University Stadium.
More Laurier Football Headlines:
· Laurier Football Coaches Clinic
o We are excited to announce that on Saturday, March 27th we are having a virtual coaches’ clinic. If you know of any club or high school level coaches interested please send them this link: https://www.laurierathletics.com/ecommerce/index.php?CatID=115
· Bryce Bell on the CFL Top 20 List
o Congratulations to Offensive Lineman Bryce Bell who is on the CFL’s Top 20 List of prospects as we head into the 2021 CFL Draft.
o https://www.laurierathletics.com/createarticle.php?ID=10772
· Laurier Grad Soars – Jeff Carefoote
o Fantastic article by David Grossman on Laurier Football alumni and great supporter of Laurier Athletics Jeff Carefoote.
o https://www.laurierathletics.com/createarticle.php?ID=10770
· CFL Signings
o Many very familiar Laurier Football names have recently signed with CFL teams for the 2021 season and there might be a few more in the coming months.
o Fingers crossed we have CFL football back on this summer, so we can watch all of these former Hawks!
Ronnie Pfeffer – Calgary Stampeders
Chris Ackie – Montreal Alouettes
Godfrey Onyeka – Saskatchewan Roughriders
Isaiah Guzylak-Messam – BC Lions
Brad Cowan – Ottawa Redblacks
Tanner Cadwallader – Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Zach Houghron – Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Scott Hutter – Edmonton Football Team
Kurleigh Gittens Jr – Toronto Argonauts
Courtney Stephen – Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Kwaku Boateng – Edmonton Football Team
Nakas Onyeka – Saskatchewan Roughriders
Mario Villamizar – BC Lions
· 2021 Recruiting Class
o Amazingly our 2021 recruiting class is complete and has been for several weeks now. With no summer football or high school football in 2020, recruits definitely made their decision earlier this year.
o We couldn’t be more pleased with the 26 names listed below. We were able to check off all of our needs and these student athletes are already taking part in our offseason virtual meetings.
o A big shout out to Recruiting Coordinator Vince Flamia and the rest of the staff for their tireless efforts in putting this impressive group together.
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
20. OL Brendan Mason – Courtice, ON
21. DL Jamari Powell – Toronto, ON
22. DL Dillon Todd – Grimsby, ON
23. FB Sebastian Parsalidis – Toronto, ON
24. LB Kain Brown – Brampton, ON
25. DB Chris Tshikuna – Hamilton, ON
26. OL Max Harris – Pickering, ON
· Talks with Hawks
o Staff Member Dave Morrissey continues to put together terrific articles in his Talk with Hawks features.
o 29 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 28) Respect 29) Levondre Gordon |
Please Stay Well & Go Hawks Go!
Michael