David Beard Looking Forward To Homecoming Thursday In Edmonton

Thursday will truly be a homecoming for Ticats offensive lineman David Beard. Throughout his playing career, the Sherwood Park, Alberta native had only ever played football in his home province, that is until a mid-season trade to Hamilton last year.

The 30-year old centre was acquired by the Tiger-Cats from the Edmonton Elks in exchange for offensive lineman Jesse Gibbon and a draft pick. Beard had spent each of his six seasons in the Canadian Football league with the Elks. He played his university football at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and his high school football at local Bev Facey high school in Sherwood Park, about a 20 minute drive from Edmonton.

After the shock of being traded from his hometown team, Beard was able to settle in nicely along the Hamilton offensive line, it helped that he saw plenty of familiar faces when he first stepped foot in the Ticats facility last September. Fellow offensive linemen and former teammates Kyle Saxelid and Colin Kelly welcomed Beard into the offensive line room—the latter of which has since moved on to Saskatchewan. Beard worked with offensive line coach Mike Gibson in Edmonton for three seasons (2016-18) while assistant General Manager Ed Hervey was Beard’s first GM the pros and the one who selected him in the second round, 16th overall in 2015. Hervey was also the GM of Edmonton’s Grey Cup winning team in 2015.

Beard, who surpassed the 100 career game mark last season, has settled in nicely in Hamilton suiting up in every contest since last year’s trade, starting all but one at centre. He’ll make his 12th start in black and gold on Thursday, as Beard and the Tiger-Cats look for a win at Commonwealth Stadium.