It will be one of the most asked questions during this Grey Cup Week; “How’s your ankle?”
Most of those queries will be to Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros, who came up limping late in last week’s Western Final win over the BC Lions.
Argonauts.ca asked that question of another player who is hoping to play on Sunday, Toronto defensive back Josh Hagerty.
“It’s feeling pretty good,” he replied. “The last couple of weeks off has helped it get back to where it needs to be. I’m confident that it’s going to feel ready on game day. I have to play in this game, I’m going to be playing in this game.”
Hagerty – a major contributor on special teams who also missed last year’s Eastern Final due to injury – hurt the ankle in the final game of the regular season; a contest that meant nothing in the standings, but for Haggerty turned out to be anything but meaningless.
The injury came at the worst possible time; you see, the 24-year old is from Regina, the host city of this weekend’s championship game.
Saying football is a religion in these parts may be a stretch, but not an enormous one. The Riders are the city’s – and province’s – biggest sports franchise; folks from Moosomin to Uranium City all cheer for the green-and-white.
Few of those fans are as passionate as was a young Josh Hagerty.
“In summertime all there was to do was to go to Rider games,” he explained. “That was a big part of our culture growing up. Come Friday or Saturday it was the Rider game, that what was on for the weekend. My family being big football fans too, that’s what we lived off of – football.”
Your humble typist rode the bus from the airport to the hotel with Hagerty, cruising by Mosaic Stadium, brightly lit on a Tuesday night; a monolith of a building nestled between railroad tracks and a residential community.
We also passed by the site of the old Mosaic – also known as Taylor Field – which is now the home of a vacant lot and lies across the train tracks from a building Hagerty pointed out as being where his father once worked, giving the family a perfect parking spot on game days.
It’s been quite a ride for a kid that is as Saskatchewan as it gets. From Jack MacKenzie Elementary School, to Campbell Collegiate, to the University of Saskatchewan; always with the dream of running through the tunnel on Grey Cup Sunday, preferably in front of his friends and family in his hometown.
If his ankle allows him, he’ll do just that; only he’ll be clad in Double Blue, not the green and white of his boyhood dreams.
Hagerty can be excused if he’s feeling overwhelmed to be accomplishing that feat in just his second season of pro football; it’s equally surprising to Argos Assistant General Manager Vince Magri, the man that recommended selecting him in the sixth round of the 2021 CFL Draft.
“He was a guy we were high on from the get-go,” Magri told Argonauts.ca. “We loved his combination of size and length, along with his ability to run and make tackles in space.”
The surprise came when Hagerty made the team in 2021, a year after the league did not play during the worldwide pandemic.
“That was the year you were going to get two draft classes coming in at the same time, you weren’t necessarily going to have room for all of your picks. Once we got late in that year’s draft, we were looking at guys that were probably going to go back to school to fine tune their game and continue to develop. We thought Josh was a perfect candidate for that.”
“Sure enough he came to camp and he was who we thought he was, but he showed it a lot sooner than we expected. We were all shocked he made the team, but he showed all the positive traits that he had. He showed them in spades right off the get-go and now he’s here with a chance to play in the Grey Cup.”
So now the man distinguishable by his long blonde hair and a sort-of moustache will be front and centre as a hometown hero, living the dream of every young Saskatchewan athlete.
“I’m sure it’s only going to get crazier through the week. I’ve already done a radio interview here and I’ve already had family asking for tickets. It’s going to be a hectic week, but I’m going to have to keep to myself and keep it cool all week, but it’s going to be fun and I’m going to enjoy it all.”