Sat, 25 January 2020
Meet Chris Ackie, an All-Star, All-Canadian Linebacker for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. This former Wilfrid Laurier University athlete was drafted in the first round of the 2015 CFL draft by the Montreal Alouettes, and fourth overall and inducted into the Wilfrid Laurier Hall of Fame in 2019. During the interview, Chris will discuss what it takes to make it as a professional football player in the CFL, which as Chris explains it, has some similarities to the NFL. Chris will also share his training routine during the offseason and how yoga and meditation play a major role in his life and how it prepares him for the game of football. Growing up in Toronto and then moving to Cambridge, Chris participated in a variety of sports including basketball, track & field, and rugby. This was a very inspiring interview with a young man who, at the age of 13, was told by one of his coaches that he would never make it on a high school football team or college football team. To hear his coach, whom he looked up to and respected say this, was disheartening to this young man, but Chris proved this coach wrong by not only making it on the collegiate level but all the way to the pros as well. In the words of Chris, “keep striving for your dreams and let no one tell you that you can’t do it.” Chris is doing it! |