Read Ch. 1 here.
Read Ch. 2 here.
Ted Laurent is playing football for the first time. He’s a young boy from Montreal and he hasn’t yet adjusted to life in Georgia. He’s uncomfortable because everything is foreign to him, from the sport of football, to the language the coach is speaking. Laurent doesn’t understand the instructions; he doesn’t speak a lick of English.
“I didn’t understand the terminology of football,” says Laurent, many years later. “When they asked a question I couldn’t answer, I just ran around and hit people.”
Football wasn’t the only thing Laurent wasn’t able to understand. He was still grappling with his mother’s decision to uproot his seemingly idyllic life.
“When my mom told me we were moving to Georgia I started crying, saying, “Why are you doing this to me? Why?” remembers Laurent. “In the moment I felt like she didn’t love me, but she probably saw something I didn’t see. You know, it worked out for the best. If I had stayed in Montreal, who knows? Would I have played football? Would I even be here?”
Interestingly, before the move, Laurent wasn’t even aware football existed.
“When I got to Georgia, one of my friends told me I should get into football. So I gave it a shot, and from there I just started playing and loving it,” says Laurent.
With time, Laurent overcame the language barrier and starting to introduce some nuance to his game, beyond simply ‘running around and hitting people.’
He was a dominant player in high school and earned the chance to attend college on a full-ride scholarship. Laurent had his choice between numerous schools, and he ultimately committed to Ole Miss.
Laurent was playing football at an elite level and had gained acceptance to a prestigious football program, but he was still unable to get comfortable. In his second year with the Rebels, the entire coaching staff that had recruited him was replaced.
“They had been there for a couple years prior to my being there,” says Laurent. “They didn’t have a lot of success and my first year was the last straw, so the whole staff got fired. Brand new coaches, brand new staff, brand new everything. I had to prove myself all over again.
“They always say, don’t ever get comfortable. I felt like I did that in college and I had to learn from it. I was a big time recruit coming out of high school, but I got benched for a couple games in my sophomore year,” says Laurent.
Soon, Laurent experienced the ‘tough’ part of his coaching staff’s love.
Laurent was warming up before practice in preparation for a game against the University of Alabama. The players were stretching before practice in uniform lines spanning the field. The first string players stretched in the foremost line and the second stringers followed behind. Laurent made his way to the front of the group with the other starters but was stopped by his coach and redirected to the rear of the pack. Another player stepped forward to take his place. Barely a word was spoken and Laurent had lost his starting spot.
“It wasn’t a conversation,” he remembers. “They watched the tape, and it showed that I had a pretty bad game. There was no explanation or anything. That humbled me and woke me up.
Laurent put his head down, worked hard in practice, and didn’t complain. Eventually, he won his spot back. He hasn’t been benched since.
After his college career, and a short-lived attempt at cracking the NFL, Laurent was acquired by Edmonton in the CFL’s supplemental draft. From there, he embarked on a CFL career that would span more than 100 professional games and eventually lead him to Hamilton.
“Hamilton has showed me a lot of love since I’ve been here,” says Laurent. “When I came to the team, it embraced me. I played with Simoni [Lawrence] in Edmonton, and [Jeremiah] Masoli back in Ole Miss. So it was an easy transition for me.”
Since he was uprooted from his hometown in Montreal, Laurent hasn’t felt truly comfortable in a city until he came to Hamilton.
But ask him if he’s comfortable on the field, and he’ll deny it every time.