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Hyack grads a hit on gridiron recruiting circuit

A few years ago, when Isaiah James was in Grade 9, it began to dawn on him he had a shot at playing football at the university level. That dream has come true for the New Westminster Hyacks lineman, and for several of his teammates.
Hyack signings
Fresh off a B.C. AAA championship, a group of New West Hyack football players have inked scholarship deals with Canadian universities, including Isaiah James (University of Saskatchewan), Sebastien Reid and Sammy Sidhu (University of Calgary), Lucas Sabau (SFU), 2016 New West alumnus Rochon Bhattacharya (SFU), and Finn Stark (University of Toronto).

A few years ago, when Isaiah James was in Grade 9, it began to dawn on him he had a shot at playing football at the university level.

That dream has come true for the New Westminster Hyacks lineman, and for several of his teammates. In the fall, James will be part of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies program after signing a letter of intent earlier this month.

“In Grade 9, coach (Farhan) Lalji started talking about how I was more developed than the rest of the players in my class. He started saying I had a real shot at playing university ball, so it just really took off from there,” said James, who was a provincial all-star on offence and recorded 27 tackles and two sacks on defence as a senior.

Two of the players he might end up going grill-to-grill on the gridiron with this fall were teammates on the squad that won the 2017 B.C. high school football AAA championship. The team’s most valuable player Sammy Sidhu and best back award winner Sebastien Reid have chosen to play for the University of Calgary Dinosaurs.

Sidhu was a provincial all-star and a Canadian Football Chat second-team all-Canadian. He rushed for 1,077 yards and scored 15 touchdowns as a running back, and had 86 tackles and two quarterback sacks on defence.

Reid was also a provincial all-star and was a CFC first-team all-Canadian. Reid racked up 1,862 all-purpose yards in his lone year as a Hyack. He had 752 yards receiving, 200 rushing and 910 in kick returns while scoring 11 touchdowns. As a defensive back, he made 30 tackles and led the province with seven interceptions.

The team’s Sidoo Family scholarship winner, tight end and linebacker Finn Stark, has also found a great landing spot, signing with the University of Toronto Blues. In addition to his exceptional blocking, Stark averaged 24.6 yards per catch and scored four touchdowns. He’s the first NWSS football grad to sign with the U of T where he will study kinesiology.

Running back Lucas Sabau, who scored the decisive points on a two-point convert on the final play of the B.C. championship game, is sticking closer to home at Simon Fraser University. In his two seasons with the varsity Hyacks he had 1,677 rushing yards and 15 TDs, and was a provincial all-star in 2016. He also had 26 tackles and one sack on defence last year.

Sabau will be joined at SFU by a former Hyack, defensive back Rochon Bhattacharya, who graduated in 2016 and played the last two seasons for the West Hills Junior College Falcons in Coalinga, California. This past season, he was in on 26 tackles, made one interception and recovered one fumble.

“It’s safe to say this is our biggest number, but it’s a championship class and when you have that kind of team success then the individual goals and achievement start to follow,” Lalji told the Record. “(Being a championship team) helps on a number of levels because you get more attention for your program; there’s more collegiate scouts coming to the big games and paying attention to what you’re doing. You’re playing more games, you’re playing better competition in big games, and all of it kind of adds up.

“You can see players, not just beating up opponents that you may have played at some point, you’re playing really tough games. And then scouts are seeing how players perform at critical times which adds to their interest level for sure.”

The six-foot, 270-pound James also considered an offer from another Husky squad, Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. But ultimately Saskatchewan’s proximity, having a few friends on the team and having family nearby won out.

 “I love the team aspect of (football). All my best friends right now I played football with and are going off to university,” said James. “It’s a real roller coaster ride when you’re playing against a good team, too.”

His new head coach is Scott Flory, a Saskatchewan native who played for the Montreal Alouettes from 1999 to 2013 and was a CFL all-star lineman.

Flory was sold after sitting down with James and his mother to find out what makes the big kid tick.

“He’s an outstanding young man, first and foremost. That’s important to me as a coach in recruiting,” said Flory. “He’s got talent and tenacity on the field as well.”

“I’m looking for a guy that loves football. That’s kind of the No. 1 criteria I’m looking for. Also, how he interacts with his mom and family, and where the passion lies and what he does outside of football and the training. It all goes to the makeup of the man.”

Like most of the teams recruiting him, Flory said James will likely end up playing defence.

“I think he can play both. Probably more on the defensive line side. I envision him there and where I see him making plays.”

That’s just fine with James. “I like defence a lot more,” said James. 

Lalji said Sidhu, who intends to study engineering at U of C, had a lot of choices because academically he could get into any school in Canada and a lot of teams were after him.

 “They’re both (Sidhu and Reid) very good athletes. We’ve been watching them for the past couple of years,” said Dinos coach Wayne Harris. “We know the program there has been extremely strong.

“Sebastien is very athletic and fast, a great returner. He should be a great defensive back for us as well. Sammy is very explosive. As a football player and a provincial champion in wrestling, he just shows that toughness and physicality to be able to play at the U-Sport (Canadian university) level.”

Lalji said James being the first Hyack to head to Saskatchewan and Stark the first off to U of T is just the latest evidence of how much Canadian schools are paying attention to the New West program.

“Truthfully, we’ve always had a lot of attention. It just so happens those players chose those schools. Saskatchewan has recruited our kids before, Toronto has recruited our kids before. It just so happened to work out those are the first kids we have signed with those programs. Both of those kids had other options as well,” said Lalji. “Toronto is a very, very exceptional academic school, and Finn’s got high academic aspirations. Course-wise and football-wise it was a good fit there.

“In Isaiah’s case, Saskatchewan is certainly known for its ability to develop linemen.”

Many NWSS players have been able to snag U.S. college scholarships in the past, but that didn’t happen this year for any Hyack, or for any graduating B.C. high school football player for that matter.

“None of them was a slam-dunk Division 1 guy. We did have some Ivy League interest on Sammy. There was some Big Sky schools that had contacted us about Sebastien. But ultimately they didn’t get any Division I offers,” said Lalji. “If a kid gets a Division 1 full ride, that’s what he should do because Canada’s not going anywhere, and if it doesn’t work out you can always come back.

“We’ve placed as many Division I kids as anybody in the last 10 years. I can say certainly firsthand, it’s a difficult process. Not everybody gets that opportunity.”

Lalji said Bhattacharya needed to improve academically to get into a Canadian school so he went the American junior college route. He was hoping for a Division I opportunity that didn’t come.

“(Bhattacharya) had other opportunities in Canada, not just SFU, and ended up choosing SFU. I think he wanted to be close to home after being away for the last couple of years. And that’s what happens to some kids, right?”

But anything other than a full-ride Division I scholarship isn’t worth pursuing below the border, said Lalji.
“Why would you go play Division II football in the U.S. when you’ve got a Division II program here (SFU), and the U-Sports (Canadian universities) programs are close to that level,” the NWSS coach said.

Harris said a vast number of Canada’s strongest and best athletes are staying in the True North for football.

“A number of them that have gone down to the States have returned for different reasons. The quality of football here is very high and the opportunities are very high. We have 20 players in the CFL and one in the NFL out our program,” said Harris. “Visibility is higher here than even some of the programs in the States.”