Imagine 4 football players in a car driving 48 hours nonstop to get here for spring camp. It was a cheap way to go, only about $700 for the car, gas and everything between Quebec City and Edmonton. All we had was our change of clothes for 3 days and socks and underwear for football.

The tryout for the University of Alberta’s Golden Bears was three days and we got in late on the Thursday night. I stayed with Tom Wilkinson one night, who was the head coach at the time. The boys were separated all over the place with other football players.

Another night I stayed with Christian Perron, a coach of mine from Quebec City. He played for the Edmonton Eskimos for a year and said I should play for the Golden Bears. He said they had very good connections with the pros.

The first year out here I spent a lot of money trying to figure myself out. It’s a big jump in life, moving across the country like that. Playing football at the University of Alberta though, that opened doors like you wouldn’t believe.

I was drafted 37th overall in the 2001 CFL Draft by the Eskimos, which was pretty high for a Golden Bears player. And that was according to my position, the long snapper position.

Football didn’t work out professionally but I’ve kept playing. This will be my sixth year with the Edmonton Stallions of the Alberta Football League. I think there will be many more seasons too. Edmonton has so many things for me. I have a tons of friends, I love all the sunshine and there’s so much here football-wise, sport-wise. At this point in my life it would be stupid to leave.