Austin Reusch played defensive back for Laurier from 2012 to 2015 (Earliest Editor’s Note ever: For some reason, by far, I have interviewed more defensive backs than any other position).  After graduating from Corpus Christi in Burlington, Austin was admitted to the Business program at Laurier and joined the team as an invited walk on. Austin may in fact be one of the nicest, happiest, kindest, most pleasant people anyone could ever meet. For the past couple of seasons, he helped coach DBs at WLU and he has also served as the defensive coordinator for the Cambridge Lions. He is also an amazing golfer and I have selfishly hitched my wagon to his in Gary Jefferies’ annual tournament so as to have a ringer in my foursome. It was a pleasure to have Austin as my subject for Episode 30.

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Golden Hawk alumni & friends of the football program,

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Levondre Gordon was a running back who played at my high school at STFXSS in MIssissauga. Although I have coached there many years, I took a few years off when I started doing recruiting for Laurier so I never actually coached him, but I did watch him play and have a ton of success including helping his team win a championship in his final year. It was certainly a priority of mine to encourage him to come to WLU. Starting at Laurier in 2015, he spent his rookie year mainly watching from the bench as Dillon Campbell was starting the final year of his amazing career. In his sophomore year, Gordon was part of a RB core (lead by Eric Guiltinan) that lead the nation in terms of most team rushing yards (other key RBs were Osayi Iginuan, Darian Waite, Tre Nicholson, & Eli Fera).  Gordon himself lead the nation in rushing average with 8.7 yards per carry.  In his third and fourth years, he rushed for over 800 yards both times (earning 2^nd team OUA All Star status in 2016), and in his final year(2017) he lead the nation in rushing with over a 1000 yards. He was a 1^st team OUA, 1^st team All Canadian, Team MVP, and an academic all Canadian.  Gordon finished 2nd all time in regular season career rushing yards (3348) at WLU and he added another 399 in the playoffs. In December of 2019, I made sure he was the first football player in STFXSS school history to have his jersey number retired.  One day, I am sure he will be inducted into the WLU Hall of Fame.

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     ‘Talks with Hawks’ returns in 2021 with a new set of interviews.  Episode 28 features members of the current coaching staff. We live in an era where civilized discourse seems to have disappeared. One of the many lessons that football can teach young men is respect. ‘Ballers’ are competitors. We all want to win. We want to dominate the man across from us. We want to beat him up physically.  But in my opinion, if we are doing it right, then after we knock that man on his ass, we help him up again. Then, we do it again. And after the game, knowing our opponent has had the same goal, we shake hands. With that in mind, today’s column is about respect for the opposition.

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Golden Hawk alumni & friends of the football program,

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     Jamie Lalonde was a much heralded recruit that had an extremely successful high school career at Sir Allan MacNab in Hamilton.  After spending his freshman year at another OUA school, Lalonde played and started at center for Laurier from 2014 to 2016.  He was part of an underrated offensive line that lead the way for Dillon Campbell to lead the nation in rushing in 2014 and 2015.  As well, he anchored the group that lead the nation in team rushing yards in 2016.  During that season, he was selected a 2^nd team OUA All Star. Most importantly, he won a Yates Cup. Since 2017, Lalonde has been the Offensive Coordinator at Clarkson Football North.

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     Kojo Millington played defensive end for Laurier from 1997 to 2000. In 1999, he was the OUA Lineman of the Year, a 1^st Team OUA All Star, and a 1^st Team All Canadian. He was also the Team MVP.  In 2000, he was a 1^st Team OUA All Star and a 2^nd Team All Canadian. He was a Laurier HOF inductee in 2007, and in 2011 he was selected as part of the Laurier Team of the Century.

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The Alexanders were a couple of local guys who had distinguished careers at Laurier. Josh played D-Line from 2000 to 2003 and was a 2^nd team OUA All star once and a 1^st team OUA All Star twice. Later on, he coached O-Line and special teams at WLU. Jesse played from 2002 to 2006. He was a two time OUA champion and a key member of the 2005 Vanier Cup squad. In 2004, he was a 1^st team OUA All Star and a 2^nd team All Canadian. In 2006, he was a 1^st team OUA and 1^st team All Canadian. During that year, he was also selected the Team MVP, the WLU Athlete of the Year, and the OUA Defensive MVP. In 2011, he was inducted into the Laurier Hall of Fame. As if that wasn’t enough, he was selected to the Laurier Team of the Century as well. Jesse is currently in his 2^nd stint coaching at WLU after brief stops at York and Windsor. I met  them in 2011 and I consider them both to be good friends. When Jesse left WLU after the 2016 Yates Cup win, I threw a goodbye party for him at the Huether Hotel. Access to the party room was delayed by, of all things, a Nerd Convention! Yes, you read that right!  You can’t make that kind of stuff up! It literally was an event with that specific title.

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In 2011, I started to do some recruiting/scouting for Laurier Football. Driving around the GTA watching football games became a part of my life. A good friend and long- time football teammate of mine Brad Matwijec was coaching football up at King City. He told me I should come out and check out his team. He listed about a half dozen key players who he felt I should come look at. So, that year I probably went to see 3 or 4 of their games and there was some undeniable talent on that team. Sam Montazeri was a punishing linebacker, Darian Waite was a stud tailback who was easily won of the top running backs in the province, Taylor Caverley was a hard-hitting ballhawk at safety and a 2 time York Region Athlete of the Year, and Marcus Arkarakas was a pass catching machine.  Montazeri and Waite started at Laurier in 2012 while Caverley and Arkarakas began their careers at WLU in 2013.  All 4 of them played key roles for the Hawks in helping WLU win a provincial championship in 2016.

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One of the best things about being part of such a large group as a football team is the number of diverse individuals that come together united in a common goal.  Sukhneet Kahlon would be one of the first to admit that you don’t find a lot of guys with his background on the gridiron, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his dreams.  As a rookie who didn’t get to dress in 2016, he was a part of a Yates Cup Championship team.  Working harder as a sophmore, he got to dress twice, and in his final two years, he became a starter on the offensive line for the Golden Hawks.  Recently, I was lucky to have the chance to talk to him about his playing days at Laurier, his faith, his experiences with racism, and his favourite football team (the Philadelphia Eagles).

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