Offensive lineman dreams of the CFL
[attach]563[/attach]On every sports team there are unsung heroes.
Corey Hafezi plays one of those roles on the Toronto Thunder — but he’s starting to step outside the shadows.
Hafezi’s position on the field is offensive guard. But the big role he plays both on and off the field is co-captain.
While Hafezi describes himself as a vocal leader on the team, he doesn’t mind taking a low profile and letting the quarterbacks and wide receivers get the attention.
“I don’t think it is necessary to be a successful lineman in the first place,” the Leaside High School grad says. “You have to be a selfless person because you aren’t going to have the glory and you aren’t going to have people congratulate you after a win or after a great block. At the end of the day, if you have a good game and you did your job and helped your team win that should be enough for you.”
Hafezi will be fighting for a starting role on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues football team in the fall. To get that job, he has to improve some of his skills.
“(Blues’ coach Greg DeLaval) wants to see my speed increase,” he says. “I have been working on my speed and explosiveness … so come time for training camp I can compete at that level and compete for a starting position there.”
To improve Hafezi needs to spend a lot of time training.
“Because everyone else is in the gym at the same time, you can’t take a day off, you have to be on your toes all the time,” he says.
While his high school football career wasn’t as successful as he would have liked, Hafezi was still able to learn a lot from the experience.
“I feel it was a good time for me to be there to be practicing, learn new skill sets and experience what it is like to lose a game,” he says, “because at the end of the day it isn’t about winning and losing, it is what you take away from the game.”
Being able to specialize in one sport and play with two different teams has helped Hafezi realize one of his goals, he says.
“In my first year here at the Thunder in 2007, we were in the championship game and the season after I played high school I could see a tremendous difference in not only how I view the game, but the speed at which I played and the speed of others around me who didn’t play,” he says.
Despite a disappointing 2-6 season last year, Hafezi and the Thunder have been able to turn things around for a 7-1 record this season. He thinks the squad can make a deep run into the playoffs and possibly win a championship, something that hasn’t happened to the Thunder since 2003.
“It would definitely do wonders for our team (and) our future recruiting process,” Hafezi says. “The last time the team won a championship was in 2003 and looking back on that roster, you see a lot of big names going to play in the CFL and the NFL.
“It would be great not only for myself, but for my teammates and the organization as a whole.”
While Hafezi would like to earn a spot with a professional team, he wants to stay grounded and take things as they come.
“I’m not sure how far I want to take it,” he says. “For now I want to make a run at a starting position with the University of Toronto and continue my university career there and hopefully get a look at the CFL if that opportunity comes along.”