Kurleigh Gittens Jr. Toronto Argonauts Most Outstanding Canadian nomination | TSN
Toronto Argonauts wide receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr.’s road to being nominated for the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding Canadian began in a different country and later with flags instead of pads.
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Toronto Argonauts wide receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr.’s road to being nominated for the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding Canadian began in a different country and later with flags instead of pads.
Born in Guyana, Gittens Jr. moved to Canada when he was nine-years-old, starting a new life alongside his family in Ottawa. It was there that he found and fell in love with football.
"I really started with flag football, just because I was fast and it was a new area for me," the 25-year-old Gittens told TSN.
"So it (football) was kind of a way for me to meet some friends. One of my buddies played for the Cumberland Panthers (a team in the National Capital Amateur Football Association), and he was like, 'Man, you should come on and try,' because I'm fast. And I liked [the] touch football that we played together in elementary school, so then I asked my pops, and he said, 'Yeah. If that's what you want to do, you can go ahead and try it.' And ever since then I just kind of fell in love with the game of football."
Gittens' new-found love of football led him to Wilfred Laurier University, where he starred as a wide receiver and returner for the Golden Hawks. And while Gittens received offers to stay closer to home, he jumped at the opportunity to head to Waterloo, Ont., to learn more about football and himself.
"One hundred per cent I wouldn't change [a] thing, to be honest with you," said Gittens on leaving home. "It allows you to grow on your own, grow into the person that you want to be. You're not always gonna have your parents around always for help. Sometimes you got to just figure stuff out on your own. And I feel like living away from my parents for those years allowed me to grow into the person that I am trying to become."
After spending four seasons as a Golden Hawk (2015-18), Gittens left the program as the leading receiver in school history. He caught 200 balls in 31 regular season games and scored 15 touchdowns. During the 2017 season, fresh off a Yates Cup title in 2016, Gittens caught a USPORTS-record 75 passes for 953 yards in eight games and was named the Ontario University Athletics' MVP.
"It really taught me [that] if I really love this that I'm putting in the work that I need to put in," said Gittens reflecting on what he learned about his game at Laurier. "It just allowed me just to grow as [an] overall football player because I had to work there as well [and] still find time to train and stuff. So it was a really, really good experience overall for my growth as a football player."
Gittens was selected by the Argonauts with the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 CFL Draft as he embarked on yet another transition in his football life. He moved from a college town to the bright lights of Toronto and BMO Field. He credits his girlfriend for making the move so seamless.
