Receivers coach Pete Costanza sat down to have lunch after watching a rookie’s first day at Toronto Argonaut training camp. The coach had a huge smile on his face and quickly shared why.
“That new guy Polk? Take this the right way, but he’s pretty.”
As usual, Costanza had made an accurate player evaluation, this time about Makai Polk.
“His first day here we had him on the JUGS machine and right away you could tell how natural of a ball catcher he was,” Costanza recalled for Argonauts.ca. “When we got into individual drills, just the way he moved through the bags, the cones, his transitions at his size, it was just a matter of can he learn the offence? All the skills and athletic ability were there. You could not not like what you saw when he first got here.”
The day wasn’t without a little drama though. Unknowingly, the rookie from Mississippi State put a gigantic scare into the Argos personnel department at the end of that first practice.
The personnel department’s training camp office at the University of Guelph is on the second floor of the pavilion at Alumni Stadium, above the locker room and overlooking the field. It was from there that someone spotted Polk on his phone in a conversation that didn’t seem like it was ever going to end.
Members of the front office stared at the receiver for several minutes as he was walking around the end zone with his phone glued to his ear. The Argos brass was terrified that he had perhaps changed his mind about heading to play in a new country. It wouldn’t have been the first time that a new player pulled the ripcord shortly after reporting to camp.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Polk said when asked about the phone call. “When I was on the field walking around in Guelph, I was just on the phone talking to my brothers and my friends, just trying to get through those times during camp. Being by myself, not being with my family, just being out of the country. I was trying to get used to it and they helped a lot.”
Translation: Polk was a normal then 22-year-old kid from the American west coast, a long way from home and feeling a little homesick in a new country.
Coming out of the gate, Polk, known as Kai to his teammates, was having an unspectacular rookie season, even being dropped to the practice roster for one game. His best outing in the first nine games was a five-catch, 60-yard effort, pedestrian numbers compared to what he would post later in the year. Since first connecting with Chad Kelly, Polk’s production has been elite.
Yes, the products of rival schools Mississippi State and Ole Miss have gotten along just fine.
In his last nine games, eight with Kelly, last week with Cameron Dukes and Nick Arbuckle, Polk had 37 catches for 736 yards, prorated to a 74 catch, 1,472-yard season. In his last seven games he has five games of over 100 receiving yards, one of only three CFL receivers to hit the century mark in that many games this year.
The late surge moved him into tenth place in receiving yards.
Why have things gone so well of late for the native of Richmond, California?
“I’m just confident,” Polk explained. “I’m just homing in on the things I have to do well. I’m just trying to improve.”
His positional coach knows it can be tough for an American receiver making the transition to the CFL. Getting comfortable with the game is incredibly important in a player’s development.
“You’ve got a lot more going on that you do down south,” explained Costanza. “When he finally started to understand the playbook, the reasons why we’re doing things a certain way, you could see him settling in. We knew once he did that he’d take off, which he really did. We’re all happy to see that.”
It wasn’t easy getting Polk in Double Blue. He had great referrals when the Argos talked to the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens, his NFL teams, but he had struggled with some minor injuries. The receiver had a spring opportunity this year with the Minnesota Vikings, but the workout didn’t work out for Polk. So, after discussions for about a year trying to lure him north, the Argos finally had their man.
He’s starting to feel at home in Toronto, on and off the field.
“It reminds me a little bit of back home in terms of being fast paced. Being downtown reminds me a little bit of San Francisco.”
After that lengthy phone call in Guelph, we know how important feeling at home is to him.