HIGH ACHIEVERS: Carleton head coach Corey Grant will be honoured by Wilfrid Laurier University football community

By Martin Cleary

When Corey Grant was in elementary school in Stoney Creek, ON, his Grade 6 teacher gave the class a challenging writing assignment.

The students were asked to describe their dream job of the future.

Grant was energized and ready to tackle that assignment with full confidence and enthusiasm. In the end, it all came true. Well, almost everything.

“When I was drafted (in the CFL), my mom brought me a book I wrote in Grade 6,” Grant said in a recent phone interview.

“Our teacher asked us – what is your dream job? My dream job was to be drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, win lots of championships, get a whole lot of money and have people cheer my name.”

Just over two decades later, the current head coach of the Carleton University Ravens football team can reflect on that assignment and put bold checkmarks beside three of those four objectives. He jokingly said he’s still working on the making-a-whole-lot-of-money part.

During the 1999 CFL Draft, Grant was selected seventh in the first round by Hamilton. He played 11 years as a receiver for Hamilton (1999-2001, 2009), Montreal Alouettes (2002) and Saskatchewan Roughriders (2002-08).

He won Grey Cup national championships with Hamilton in his rookie 1999 season and also with Saskatchewan in 2007.

Grant made a spectacular debut in 1999 with 55 receptions for 859 yards and won the league’s rookie-of-the-year award. His reception and yardage stats were the best single-season marks of his career, which featured a total of 319 catches for 4,404 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Having a pair of Grey Cup wins to his credit, he certainly heard the cheers of the fans during games and parades.

But what allowed Grant to have a remarkable CFL career was his notable football career with the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks from 1995-99.

Thirty years after being named the OUA rookie of the year and being selected to the conference’s second all-star team as a receiver in 1997, Grant will be honoured by the Golden Hawks’ football community.

On May 1, Laurier Athletics and Recreation will pay tribute to one Golden Hawk from each decade of the football program’s history at the 25th Legends of Laurier Football Gala. Grant has been designated as the man of the moment for the 1990s.

The other honourees will be Bob Hamilton (1960s), Ted Passmore (1970s), Paul and Joe Nastasiuk (1980s), Justin Phillips (2000s) and Nakas Onyeka (2010s).

The Ottawa-born Phillips, who was recently inducted into the Stittsville Sports Hall of Fame, was a defensive end for Laurier from 2008-12, when the Golden Hawks won four Yates Cup conference titles and the 2005 Vanier Cup national championship. Drafted by Calgary in 2007, Phillips played seven seasons with the Stampeders (2007-13) and two years with the Ottawa Redblacks (2014-15). He appeared in three Grey Cup finals, winning in 2008.

“It’s a great honour. It was a surprise, when (Laurier) head coach Michael Faulds called me,” Grant added. “I was standing and watching my players run around on the practice field.

“Wilfrid Laurier will always have a special place in my heart as it made me what I am today.”

Grant built a strong case to be a high pick in the 1999 CFL draft from his final two seasons at Laurier – 27 catches for 461 yards and a team-high six touchdowns in 1997 and 34 receptions for 455 yards and four touchdowns in 1998.

A running back-turned-receiver at Orchard Park Secondary School, Grant was on the radar of several Canadian universities. When he decided to enrol at Laurier and play for head coach Rick Zmich, a former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees quarterback, he not only satisfied his own objectives, but also those of his mother and grandmother, who hoped he would attend a university close to home.

“My first year was a blur. But I had an outstanding year, one of my better years,” Grant recalled.

But football was more than wins, losses and numbers for Grant, who graduated with a degree in psychology.

“It’s not so much the games and wins, but the friendships and the whole university experience,” added Grant, who loved spending time at the Football House, which was a little gathering place near the stadium containing the coaches’ offices and video room.

Meanwhile, another Ottawa football player was honoured earlier this year at the Waterloo, ON university, when Kurleigh Gittens Jr. was inducted into the Laurier Golden Hawks Hall of Fame.

Gittens Jr. was a two-time team MVP, a four-time OUA all-star and a two-time U Sports All-Canadian. In his final year, he was named the 2018 OUA MVP and Laurier’s male President’s Award winner. He also helped the Golden Hawks win the Yates Cup in 2016.

RAVENS, GEE-GEES WELL REPRESENTED FOR EAST-WEST BOWL

The annual U Sports East-West Bowl for the top 106 Canadian university football players eligible for the 2026 CFL draft will be played May 10 at the University of Waterloo.

The Carleton University Ravens and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees will be well represented with four players each on the East roster. The Ravens also will have three coaches, while the Gee-Gees will have one coach on the East lineup.

The Ravens’ players are: Frederick Hachey, receiver; Brody Burke, defensive lineman; Christopher Toupin, linebacker; and Schneider Cave, defensive back. They will be joined by coaches Mack Holliday, special teams assistant; Corey Grant, receivers; and Angus O’Mara, offensive lineman.

The Gee-Gees’ players are: Zac Cloutier, offensive lineman; Jaxxon Breashear, linebacker; Patrick Cumberbatch, defensive back; and Zach Copeland, kicker/punter. Brad Miller will be the East special teams co-ordinator.