In high school, I was passionate about sports, especially football. I enjoyed school and was smart enough to maintain a solid B average without too much effort. Though that was nothing to celebrate, it did keep my parents at bay while I spent more time enjoying sports and a social life. At that age, my life aspiration was to play professional football, and to teach and coach high school football after that. I was a good enough player to receive attention from various Canadian universities. I figured that I would probably attend the University of Western Ontario for their prestigious football program or attend one of my hometown schools – Laurier or Waterloo.
I will never forget the day my football coach called me into his office to tell me that I had received particularly strong interest from a school that was not on my radar: McGill University. At the time, I knew nothing about McGill other than it was in Montreal, which seemed like an entire world away. The more I learned about the school, the more intrigued I became. McGill was regarded by many to be the best university in Canada. It had an illustrious list of alumni. It had a concurrent Education program, which would allow me to study Kinesiology and History, while completing Teachers College at the same time. It also had a strong Athletics program and I did not need to be fluent in French to attend. I was very intrigued!
The opportunity to attend McGill motivated me to raise the bar beyond anything I had set my mind to before.”
Upon reflection, my decision was probably made the moment I saw the campus – it was breathtaking. During my recruitment trip, I stayed with an incredible group of student-athletes who were committed to both their performance on the football field and their academic pursuits. I had the chance to experience a taste of student life in the student ghetto. Staying in their classic Montreal brownstone walkup, I met their diverse circle of friends from a variety of backgrounds, all of whom shared an obvious enthusiasm for McGill. I truly felt like I belonged there. By the end of that weekend, my decision was final. I was to be a McGill man.
The only remaining issue was the challenging entry requirements. The cut off for acceptance into the program of my choice was 82%, and I wanted to attend McGill badly enough that I set my mind to it and raised my average to 85%, which was recognized as an Ontario Scholar in time for university applications. The opportunity to attend McGill motivated me to raise the bar beyond anything I had set my mind to before. Once I achieved this new academic standard, I was motivated to maintain it in order to keep up with my new classmates and teammates at McGill.
During my first year, I lived in the beautiful and historic Douglas Hall residence. On my floor alone, we had students from Russia, Singapore, and the Bahamas, along with the United States, and nearly every province in Canada. I remain friends with several of these people to this day. Coming from a smaller city, having attended an all-boys Catholic school, and being so immersed in football culture, it would have been easy to stay inside my comfortable little bubble. However, McGill forced me to broaden my horizons, and I am forever richer for it.
Even after moving out of residence, McGill provided a gradual approach to big city living for a small-town kid. Living in the ghetto had the feel of being in a small, close-knit community while simultaneously being smack dab in the middle of the second largest and most cosmopolitan city in Canada. I can easily say that my four years there were among the best of my life.
During my time at McGill, five of my football teammates were concurrently in Medical school. Not only were they members of the team, but they were all very prominent players. Most of them were league all-stars, a couple of them were All-Canadians, and one of them even went on to have an eight-year career in the National Football League – JP Darche who recently won a Superbowl as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs medical staff. Numerous other teammates were also in challenging programs such as Engineering, Architecture and Management. As a member of the football team at McGill, it was constantly reinforced to us that not only were academics important, but that we could and should strive to excel at both.
My experience at McGill really challenged me to think differently and dig deeper on so many preconceived beliefs that I had about the world and about myself. Whether it was attending a lecture with Oliver Sacks or Tom Velk or socializing with classmates from diverse backgrounds, McGill pushed me to grow beyond my personal comfort zone and my own expectations of myself. This has had a lasting impact on my personal life, as well as my career in the professional sports and health industries. I continue to value the friendships that I built with my teammates and classmates at McGill, and the new relationships that I continue to develop thanks to an incredibly powerful alumni network around the world.