Weekend Sun shines on Keegan Treloar

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2014 (4022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Were you always an active sports guy?

Yeah. I’ve always been an athlete. I grew up playing elite soccer — I played on the provincial team. I went and played for a couple of international teams in the States. I played for a team from Ecuador and that was pretty cool. And soccer was my life — I never really played any other sports competitively. Then about Grade 9, one of my sister’s friends was like, ‘Oh — you can kick a soccer ball pretty far. Let’s see if you can kick a football.’ So I came out to practice one day — I was wearing all soccer stuff and I’m sure I looked like an idiot, but I kicked a couple of field goals and they were impressed I could somehow pick it up.

And then I started playing (football) through high school. My soccer coaches didn’t really approve — the thought of me getting hit and all that kind of stuff.

It’s definitely a different game — football — when you’re a kicker than when you’re playing soccer. Soccer allows you to be more creative on the field. Whereas kicking, you go out there and you know exactly where you’re going to kick from and exactly where it’s going to go.

So I played soccer until Grade 12, and it was a tough parting for me, but I felt I could have a bigger future in football. And I really found, once I started playing football, that I loved it. It was kind of a weird transition — it was intimidating at first, going from a ‘non-contact sport’ with soccer and then going into football. But I found a family at Massey — coach (Kevin) Grindey and coach (Mike) Steeves — they’re just amazing coaches and they’re one of the reasons I’m playing football today.

I remember you saying once that a kicker is the weird guy on the team? Why? Is it because you just run out and do your one thing and then go back to the sidelines?

If you talk to a football coach or other position, they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s the kicker — he’s not really a football player. All he does is go out and kick and it’s an easy life and he has an easy day of practice.’ I’ve heard it from Grade 9 all the way up. You just get used to it.

But holy pressure, though! That one kick can make or break the game, right?

I find that it balances out. I get a little bit easier practice schedule but there’s lots of pressure — it just builds and everyone’s kind of looking at you.

But I don’t think I’ve ever met a kicker who wasn’t a character. They always have their own special flare and personality and they’re a great group of guys. We’re a family, kickers, just because we’re such a small, niche position. And no matter where I go, if you’re playing against a team, you go out and talk to their kicker and you guys are good friends.

So how did you choose Concordia as the university you wanted to attend?

Well, it’s kind of a funny story. I’d made this film with my dad showing me kicking. I kicked a couple of 60-yard field goals, and I just put it up on YouTube to see what would happen.

And when I went to Vegas in Grade 11 or 12 for a Kicking Combine — there were more than 300 kickers there — I got to work with some amazing coaches down there. And it was different. It was the middle of February and I hadn’t kicked since November because there’s no real indoor places. It was a great experience, and they talked about recruiting, and I’d really never thought about it. I just went down there to see if my kicking would excel.

So it turned out that the dad of one of the players on my team had seen my film on YouTube, and he was like, ‘Holy crap — this kid can kick!’ And he sent it to York University, the head coach there, and 15 minutes after he saw this film, he called me up and said, ‘We’re really interested in you.’

And I never really thought of playing university football, and I thought, ‘Oh wow — this is really cool!’ So I got some email addresses and sent the film to pretty much every university in Canada except the ones in Quebec. I thought, ‘I’m from Manitoba, I took Grade 4 to 6 French. I can’t speak French, I’m not going to go to Quebec.’

So I got a tremendous response from a lot of teams and a lot of coaches and talked to a lot of schools. And one of the coaches at York, he used to coach at Concordia in Montreal, and he was talking to the head coach there, and said, ‘Hey — are you recruiting this kid?’ And the coach said, ‘I’ve never heard of him,’ because I didn’t send my tape to Quebec. So he goes and looks at my film and says, ‘Holy crap!’ And all of a sudden I’m getting a call from Montreal, and I’m thinking, ‘How is this happening? I didn’t send my film there.’

The power of the Internet…

They wanted to fly me out on a recruiting trip and so I started doing some research on the school. And it turns out they were just a kicker factory! The head coach, Gerry McGrath at the time, was a kicker in the CFL. And the past seven kickers from Concordia have all gone pro consecutively.

The kicker before me was Rene Paredes. So I met him on my recruiting trip and he was a great guy. And he called me in the middle of that summer and said, ‘Hey — I signed with Calgary, so you get ready to kick.’ And he’s the best kicker in the CFL right now.

But he went on Twitter and he tagged my university football handle, he tags the CFL and he tags my name. And he said, ‘Did you know the last seven kickers from Concordia have all gone pro?’ And then he says ‘Keegan, don’t mess it up.’

Wow! And now you’re starting your fourth year.

Right. I can play five, but how it works is that your fourth year of university football is your draft year. And this year was a really good year for me — I just kicked. I didn’t punt. So I got invited to the East/West Bowl. They look at all the players going into the draft next year, and they look at all the top players from the east and the west and they bring them together for a week in London, Ont., at Western University and all the CFL scouts are there for the week.

It was a really unique experience — I really am honoured to have gone. You get there and you’re practising with all the best in the country. Then you start kicking and there’s six scouts standing behind you with their clipboards.

But then you start talking to them and you kind of joke around. And being a kicker, every scout, ‘Oh — he’s just a kicker.’ That’s the persona given in football — ‘Oh, he’s just a kicker.’ There’s always jokes.

But there’s also a lot of pressure and one of the coaches said, ‘A kicker’s just like a cab driver — if he messes up, you can always just get another one.’ And it’s sort of true. There are nine teams in the CFL and that means there’s nine kickers in the entire country. And there’s a lot of guys fighting for jobs right now.

So how is this season shaping up?

It’s a big season and I just want our team to do well. The Vanier Cup — the overall national championship — is in Montreal at McGill, so it’s something to look forward to. And it’s a dream that’s not unattainable for us. And with the coaching staff that we have and with the talent we have, I can see us making it all the way there.

Then the draft comes and hopefully I’ll be invited to the Kicking Combine which is after this season. It’s a week before East/West Bowl, and they bring in all the top prospects to get drafted and you go and you test and you kick for the scouts and see how the draft lines up.

I’m confident my kicking abilities can take me to the next level. This past year I’ve shown that I have the leg and the consistency to be a CFL-calibre kicker. And at Concordia I’ve been working with CFL kickers and Rene Paredes is a really close friend now and we kick quite a bit through the winter. He’s definitely a good mentor to have, being the best kicker in the CFL. He’s shown me a lot. He definitely got me to relax a little bit — I was all over the place and squirrelly in my first two years. But he got me to relax and slow myself down.

And you grow as a person and mature as an athlete, but the amount of kickers I’ve been able to work with is phenomenal. You take one or two things from each kicker and it’s kind of the best of everything.

Let’s move from football to family. Is it nice to come home for the summer? Or do you miss the big city?

I enjoy being back in Brandon and down at Pelican Lake. I kind of grew up there. It’s been a great family at the Yacht Club — they’re truly a great group of people. They’re SO important to me and I love getting down there. And it’s kind of moulded who I am because I spent so much time there.

It’s great being home with my parents and spending time with my sister. And with my friends, we pick right up where we left off. The pace is a little bit slower here, and that’s fine with me. And I appreciate the community support. Because there are a lot of phenomenal athletes in Montreal who never get recognized. But when you excel here, you really get the chance to excel.

Even our neighbours around here — my parents were saying, ‘They’re watching the game.’ And that’s pretty cool — I have a following! And I never thought in a million years that that would ever happen.

There’s this sense of community in Manitoba and everyone’s so happy to cheer for and follow people. I’ll talk to people I haven’t talked to in years and they’ll say, ‘Oh, you had a great season this year.’ And that’s really cool! And them following you and you know that people are watching — it kind of adds pressure, but it also makes me really happy. And it makes me proud — proud to be from Brandon, Manitoba.