JR LaRose wants kids in Prince George to know how much having a junior football team to play for in his hometown helped him become the man he is today.
It was his pipeline to the pros.
Among a handful of former CFL players who came to Prince George Friday for the Prince George Kodiaks Football Club inaugural fundraising golf tournament at Aberdeen Glen, LaRose now works as a motivational speaker who tours Canada and the U.S. talking about how he beat the odds as a poverty-stricken inner-city kid in Edmonton.
The product of Nigerian father deported from Canada before he was born and a drug-addicted Cree mother who suffered through the hardships of a residential school, he has made something out of his life as a proud member of the One Arrow First Nation and football was crucial in creating that opportunity.
Coming out of high school, LaRose wanted to play university football but didn’t have the grades needed to qualify so he tried out for the Edmonton Huskies and made the team as a cornerback. Former NFL safety Samaji Akili was his defensive back position coach and LaRose excelled, helping the Huskies win back-to-back Canadian Bowl national championships in 2004 and 2005.
“I was grateful for that, I played four years of junior and got the opportunity to go pro,” said LaRose. “(Akili) had me so fundamentally and technically sound that when I went pro it was an easy transition. I could have gone to CIS university and sure, I may have gotten an opportunity, but I wouldn’t have been as good as I was.”
LaRose started his CFL career in 2005 playing safety for the Edmonton Eskimos and was with the team until 2008, when he suffered a badly-broken leg. He returned to the game in 2010 as the B.C. Lions backup safety and was a starter the following season when the Lions won the Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. He played five seasons with the Lions before he retired in 2014.
Larose lives in Vancouver and stays involved in football as a trainer with the Game Ready Fitness youth sports facility his former Eskimos teammate Will Loftus operates in Surrey.
Like LaRose, Loftus struggled to get established in football and junior football offered that lifeline. Coming out of John Oliver Secondary School as a star athlete, he had plenty of schools interested and ended up at the College of the Sequoias in California on a two-year scholarship. But he didn’t earn the marks needed to qualify for a Canadian university team and instead played two seasons of junior football with the Surrey Rams. He eventually landed at the University of Manitoba and in 1998 was drafted in the third round by the Montreal Alouettes, which led to a 11-year CFL career with Montreal and Edmonton highlighted by Grey Cup championships in 2002 and 2005.
“I was one of those scenarios of life where you wish everything was peachy and creamy, but it wasn’t,” said Loftus. “I did really well on the football field but unfortunately, my dedication on the football field didn’t match my dedication to the classroom.
“If I didn’t play junior football I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to Manitoba. It kept me alive in the game. It created a safe consistent place for me to show up to where I could be validated by amazing coaches and I was surrounded by positive peers and that got me through every single day, and that led me to be the man I am today. Junior football was life-changing for me.”
Friday's golf tournament also attracted former CFL wide receiver Paris Jackson and defensive end Ricky Foley. The Kodiaks' organization was introduced a month ago as a B.C. Football Conference expansion team for 2022.
On a roster of 80 players, the Kodiaks expects 60 of them come from the high school teams in northern B.C. Considering the players will be predominantly local, Larose says having that many with local ties will create a loyal fanbase that will instantly establish the team.
“These organizations thrive in smaller towns, it’s a smaller market where you have the support,” he said. “Now you have 60 local guys that are from this community, well now you have everybody supporting them as they move forward in their career and it just creates a great environment.
“The great thing about junior football is you’ll get kids from all over Canada and now you’ll have people coming to here to make Prince George home.”
LaRose also thinks the Kodiaks made the right choice hiring Keon Raymond as head coach and director of football operations.
“He was great player but even more, he’s a better human being and that’s what you want in community like Prince George, where he’s going to invest his time into the youth and these young men’s lives,” said Larose.
“Having a guy that played pro that was an all-star and has the resume Keon has creates a lot of excitement for people looking to further their football career and I guarantee he will surround himself with great coaches as well. It’s going to be top-notch.
“I tell people all the time, football’s such a small part of your life, but there’s so many life lessons that you learn. I know he’ll do a phenomenal job.”
The involvement of Prince George teams in 7-on-7 tournaments in Calgary and Vancouver the past three years familiarized the ex-pros who make up the Game Ready Fitness coaching staff with Kodiaks club president Craig Briere. Prince George teams have stacked up well against teams from larger centres and players from the north have thrived in the program to point where they’re now making provincial teams.
“To see what Craig has done with the local football teams who made Team BC, and even some of the guys working with us through 7-on-7, they’re phenomenal athletes,” said LaRose. “When the kids try out from Vancouver, they’re pulling from all over the Lower Mainland, and to come from a smaller town and make these all-star teams, it just shows that the level of coaching out here and the level of commitment that people are making to football, which is huge.”
