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Former Bonnyville players hit the U Sport field

Two of Bonnyville’s own played at the national university level this past weekend. Isaac and Jeremy Fagnan play for St. Francis Xavier (STFX) University in Nova Scotia, and this year proved why they were picked up by the team.
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Jeremy (left) and Isaac (right) Fagnan play for the St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. This year, they made it all the way to national semi-finals.

Two of Bonnyville’s own played at the national university level this past weekend.


Isaac and Jeremy Fagnan play for St. Francis  Xavier (STFX) University in Nova Scotia, and this year proved why they were picked up by the team.


After winning the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) final, the Loney Bowl, STFX was headed to Quebec to play Laval University in the national semi-finals U Sports UTeck Bowl.


While it was a hard-fought battle, STFX fell 63-0.


“Obviously, it’s not how we wanted it to pan out,” expressed Isaac. “Laval is arguably the most decorated U Sports football team. They’re a very good football team, and we weren’t ready to compete with them.”


Jeremy added, “It was tough. It wasn’t the greatest way to end the season, but it was pretty big to get to the national semi-finals. In that way, it was pretty cool to finish the season on that kind of game.”


While Jeremy and Isaac played for the same teams growing up, they only became team mates when they moved onto play at the next level.


“I never got the chance to play with Isaac over high school a whole lot, but we got the chance to play together in junior for a couple of years. To come to the same university, go to school, and to play our last two years of eligibility together was pretty neat,” Jeremy said. Isaac described the experience of playing alongside his brother as something he’s thankful for.


“The last four years, we’ve been able to play together, train together, pretty much do everything together. He’s been a very big inspiration for me, and we just really push each other. Definitely going to miss that, he’s moving on in football, but he’s still going to be around,” he said.


STFX had a 6-2 record this year going into the postseason, which Isaac noted as an improvement for the team.


“We’ve come a really far way since last year. We really struggled to be connected as a team (previously), very disjointed it seemed, and this year was a big change. You could tell that with our record, and just the atmosphere in the team,” he detailed.


Jeremy hopes to continue playing, and plans on training for the CFL Combine, where collegiate-level athletes have the potential to be drafted to the league.


Even though that’s a wrap for the season, this dynamic duo won’t stop training.


“The season just ended, but that’s when the real work starts... I’m going to work as hard as I can to get better, be a better part of the team, to be a bigger influence on the games, and a big leader for this team,” Isaac expressed.


To current players interested in pursuing the sport past high school, Isaac and Jeremy offered some advice to them.


“It comes down to how bad you want it, it’s definitely not easy... But, I can tell the kids that are in the ranks moving up, when I was in their shoes, I didn’t think I was going to be playing for a U Sport team. I thought I was going to be done after high school, but I had a passion for the game to work hard and that’s what I did,” Isaac said. “For those kids, I’d say if that’s the dream for you, you have to work hard. It’s not going to be given to you, nothing’s going to be given to you. You’ve got to put your nose to the grindstone, get in the gym and books, and people will notice you.”


Jeremy recommends starting to train early on.


“Don’t think that your natural talent is going to carry you through. It might get you through high school, it might get you through to junior, it might get you recruited, but, if you start training now, doing the proper training and getting into the right mindset, it will take you so much further. I wish I would have known what I knew now when I was 13 or 14-years-old. Don’t stop, and focus on your academics, schools don’t care if you’re a great football player if you can’t average over a 50 per cent in high school.”

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