Chase your dreams or stay asleep.
It’s the motto by which Tiger-Cats cornerback Courtney Stephen lives his life, and it’s one that has permeated every one of his endeavours since childhood.
Stephen grew up in Brampton, Ontario, a city which taught him the meaning of hard work from the very start. Brampton is a lot like Hamilton, says Stephen; it’s a working class town, where “people wake up early and come home late.”
In a town of hard work, Stephen’s parents were the hardest workers that he knew; his mom took on up to three jobs at a time, while his dad’s job often took him on the road. His parents sacrificed a lot for him, but Stephen never heard them complain, which is why you’ll never hear him complain about any amount of work he has to put in on the field.
“They always sacrificed so much for me to be able to play this game, so I pay them back with my effort,” says Stephen, smiling. “I’m out here having fun, how could I ever complain?”
The Ticats defensive back started football at the age of eight, beginning in the house league program, before it became apparent that he was a special talent. After just one year of house league football, the coach was calling up Stephen’s mom, telling her that her son belonged in the rep program and to ‘make sure he plays football.’
Brampton’s minor football program was much like the city itself, teaching the young men in the program what it meant to work for everything.
“Our coaches were real tough on us,” says Stephen, “but they taught us how to be good young men, and they taught us how to work more than anything.”
Stephen’s coaches instilled the value of perfection with practice, making their players do 10 pushups after every dropped ball or offside penalty. It was taxing, and it wasn’t easy, but it made the games easy. There was a three-year stretch during his minor football career where Stephen’s team, the Brampton Bulldogs, didn’t lose a single game, and he attributes that to the environment created by the coaches.
“It was a great, competitive environment to grow up in, and I think that transferred over when I left Brampton,” says Stephen.
Stephen left Brampton to attend Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, receiving a scholarship to play for the purple and gold after an extremely successful high school career at Fenton Secondary School.
At Laurier, Stephen established himself as a true standout player. He was the Golden Hawks’ rookie of the year and a second-team OUA all-star in 2008, amassing 44.5 tackles and five interceptions over the course of the regular season and two playoff games.
In 2009, Stephen continued his OUA dominance, making 52.5 tackles and two interceptions while adding a dimension as a pass-rusher, racking up three sacks. In his second season, he was named an OUA First Team All-Star and a CIS Second Team All-Canadian.
“I love Laurier,” says Stephen, “I had the benefit of a great coaching staff, with Coach VanMoerkerke and Coach Cameron. The guys who I came in with in my recruiting class, we’re still great friends.”
Life at Laurier was golden. Stephen was flourishing as a leader on a strong football team— a team which he calls one of the closest he’s ever played on—but there were still dreams to chase for the young defensive back.
Nothing is a given
Stephen had always wanted to play Division-I college football across the border, it was one of his life goals from a young age. His older brother, Patrick, had played for the Northern Illinois Huskies, and the opportunity to do the same presented itself after Stephen’s second season at Laurier.
“I toiled over it for months,” explains Stephen, “I would have had to live the rest of my life wondering ‘what if’ if I didn’t go, so I rolled the dice and went.”
Stephen arrived at NIU for the 2010 football season, winning a spot on the team in a walk-on tryout before getting his start on the appropriately named ‘work team’. The free safety spent the full season on the Huskies’ work team, also referred to as second team, where his work ethic allowed him to quickly make a name for himself.
It took just four plays into his first NCAA game for Stephen to make an impact for the Huskies. After a quick three-and-out from the opposing team’s offence, the punt team was called on. The opposing punter’s kick was blocked by one of Stephen’s teammates, and the rookie scooped up the ball, taking the loose ball 16 yards into the end zone.
“It was all downhill from there,” jokes Stephen. Five games later, he suffered a tear to his ACL, effectively ending his first Division-I season.
Stephen was devastated, and rightfully so, but instead of letting the injury break him down, the junior used it as a chance to grow and get better.
“Weird enough as it may seem, I feel like that was a great experience for me.”
The injury gave him a chance to learn how to watch the game from a critical perspective, allowing him to develop as a player without ever touching the field.
“It taught me how to stay hungry,” Stephen explains, “it taught me the importance of being prepared when your opportunity comes.”
The opportunity did come, and Stephen answered, finishing off his career at Northern Illinois with a strong senior season in which he cemented himself as a contributor on every special teams unit, while providing the defence with valuable depth, making his first interception along with 13 tackles in 10 games.
Challenges are opportunities to get better
In the 2012 CFL Canadian Draft, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats selected Courtney Stephen with the 8th overall pick. The ‘Cats were impressed with the safety, enough to draft him into a position usually dominated by international players.
Thinking back on his first experience in the CFL, Stephen laughs, “I hurt my AC joint [shoulder] on my very first tackle. I just had to learn that you’re playing against some big boys over here…you better bring the lumber.”
It didn’t take long to adjust to the Canadian game again, thanks to the coaching and experience in Laurier’s program. Both his defensive coordinator, Ron VanMoerkerke, and defensive backs coach Dwayne Cameron were integral to the immediate success Stephen experienced in the CFL.
“When I came back here, I just had to revisit the things that they told me,” says Stephen, “I had a leg up from those two years, they really poured themselves into me and I’m forever grateful for it.”
In his first season with the Ticats, the rookie safety used the fundamentals and advanced coverage techniques he’d learned with the Golden Hawks to become an immediate contributor, recording 39 tackles between the defence and special teams over the course of 14 games.
The 2014 season brought another adjustment for Stephen’s game, when he was asked to make the transition from his native position at safety to cornerback.
“It was a learning curve,” explains Stephen, “but I’m standing here today much better than I was last year because I accepted the challenge and every day I came to work.”
Stephen’s numbers showed that drive in action. In 2014, the second-year Ticats defensive back amassed 48 tackles over the course of the season, including six tackles for a loss, while adding two interceptions.
Stephen has been on a tear since entering the league, but he doesn’t let the success get to his head, and he continues to push himself to work harder. On Wednesday, he dropped down and did 10 burpees on the sidelines; when asked what they were for, he explained that he got tired today.
“That’s not acceptable. When I came off the field, I had to hit ten burpees while I was still tired, so next time I don’t get fatigued,” he says.
As far as goals for 2015 go, Stephen isn’t talking numbers, he’s not interested in personal feats at all actually. Instead, he’s focusing on being a consistent contributor and just making his teammates better.
“I want to show up when the lights are on, and I want to make the people around me better,” says Stephen. “It’s really not about me, it’s not about the individual, it’s about the team.”
When asked what it would be like to finally hoist the Grey Cup over his shoulders, Stephen reflected on how special that would be.
“It would be a pretty cool story to tell,” he says, “The cool thing is, we’ve got the pen and we’re writing it.”
Back to his roots
Even when he’s not on the field playing the game he loves, Courtney Stephen isn’t the type to rest; he’s still putting in work, just not on the field and not on his own game.
Along with Montreal Alouettes defensive back Mike Edem, a childhood friend and teammate with the Brampton Bulldogs, Stephen has set out to make a difference in the lives of young, aspiring football players.
He knows how hard he had to fight to get to where he is now, which is why he co-founded Overtime Football, a mentorship and training program for young, Canadian football players.
“With OT Football, we’re trying to build the next generation of Canadian football players,” says Stephen, who found inspiration for the program when he saw the intensive training and coaching that takes place at the grassroots level in the United States.
Despite the time and effort that his own coaches put into developing him as a football player, Stephen believes that Canadian youngsters in general are playing catch-up, and he created the program to make the transition to the post-secondary and higher levels of football easier for kids coming out of Canada.
“We’re just trying to have fun, and teach kids how to be good young men and better student athletes,” explains Stephen, who is very proud of the kids in his program and exudes energy when talking about them.
“You better watch out,” he says, “we’ve got a few [pro] prospects for the year 2020. They love to work and they’re a fun team to be around, and they’ve got great work ethic.”
Work ethic is easy to spot for Stephen–after all, he’s built his career on it– so it’s no surprise that he values it above everything else in his proteges.
Asked if there’s anything else that Tiger-Cats fans should know about him, Stephen smiles, and brings the conversation back to his strongly embeddded roots again.
“I’m just a local guy out here wearing the Black and Gold proud,” he says, “I was a [Brampton] Bulldog when I was younger, so I already know how to wear the Black and Gold with a little swagger.”
“Look out for 22 on game day.”