Ex-Bison optimizing opportunity

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This article was published 25/11/2016 (3445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Two weeks ago, Kienan Lafrance was a relative unknown around the Canadian Football League.

But as the days trickle down to the 104th Grey Cup game between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks Sunday, the Redblacks running back has managed to steal a piece of the spotlight usually reserved for the league’s superstars.

All week, LaFrance — a 25-year-old native of Winnipeg who played his high school football at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate — has been put in front of TV cameras and asked questions from journalists from across the country, all eager to dig beyond the name emblazoned on the back of his No. 27 jersey.

LaFrance became the instant feel-good story of Grey Cup week for what he did in a 35-23 win over the Edmonton Eskimos in the East Division final. With regular starter Mossis Madu injured early in the first quarter, LaFrance was sprung into a game that, because of heavy snowfall, would rely greatly on the run game.

LaFrance finished with 25 carries for 157 rushing yards, capping off his night with a 20-yard touchdown run with 45 seconds left to seal the win. He had rushed for just 167 yards on 37 carries in the regular season — and no more than 52 yards in a game, which he logged against the Montreal Alouettes in June. Last year, LaFrance, who stands 5-10 and weighs 210 pounds, rushed the ball a mere six times.

Fast forward to present day: the Redblacks are set to face their biggest test yet this season against a dominant Stampeders team for the CFL title and LaFrance has the chance to be the unlikeliest of heroes.

It’s become another popular storyline, but one LaFrance refuses to read much into.

“Everyone has kind of been saying I’m defying the odds,” he said after the Redblacks practice Friday. “I just needed a chance, someone to believe in me and I’m just glad that the staff here and the management believed in me.

“It’s awesome, it’s special and it’s humbling all at the same time.”

The added exposure — and playing time — has surely benefitted LaFrance, but the biggest winner in his growing hype may just be the CFL. Though LaFrance doesn’t choose to view his current situation as defying any odds, it’s hard to argue it isn’t exactly what he’s doing.

Chosen in the sixth round — 46th overall — in the 2015 draft, the odds of him playing in the CFL two years later were slim, let alone the chance to star in a Grey Cup game.

“Once you go to training camp the draft doesn’t matter,” said Redblacks receiver Jake Harty, who was drafted in the same year — second round, 10th overall — and is now LaFrance’s roommate. “Who is the best is often who works the hardest. That’s Kienan.”

If LaFrance is to have a hefty workload — “I’m going to be playing, playing a lot,” he said — he would not be the first Canadian-born player to be relied upon so greatly early in his professional career (see: Taylor Loffler, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, or Alex Singleton, Calgary Stampeders) but it is unique given his position.

Referred to as one of the “skilled” positions, running back spots in the CFL are usually reserved for import players from the U.S.; or if they are Canadians, they’ve had years to establish themselves in the league before being handed the type of responsibility expected of LaFrance Sunday. If he can succeed, he may open the eyes of other players drafted late.

“Obviously, there’s a big difference between CIS and pro, but the way I figure is if I can do it there, why not be able to do it here?” said LaFrance, who was a conference all-star with the University of Manitoba in 2014, the final of his four years with the Bisons.

It was this same can-do logic Redblacks teammate Brad Sinopoli said he used in his rise to being one of the top Canadian players in the CFL.

After a successful collegiate career playing quarterback with the Ottawa Gee-gees, including winning the Hec Crighton award as the top player in Canadian university football in his final year in 2010, Sinopoli was selected by Calgary in the fourth round of the 2011 CFL Draft. He played two seasons with the Stampeders as a backup QB, eventually moving to receiver in his third year.

If he was going to be successful in transitioning to another position, Sinopoli knew it would take a lot of dedication and a willingness to put in the work. He did and in his two years with the Redblacks, Sinopoli has posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and last year was named the CFL’s most outstanding Canadian.

His journey has made him susceptible to admiring other’s paths, particularly Canadians, into the CFL. It wasn’t long after he signed with Ottawa as a free agent in 2015 he started to see the potential in LaFrance, who was a rookie at the time.

“We just talked about it the other day. His first couple times in training camp, his first couple nights he didn’t get any sleep with all the work he put into the playbook,” said Sinopoli.

“I kind of went through something similar, where you understand there’s a time and a place when you’re going to get your chance and you don’t want to blow it when you do. You just want to be as best prepared as you can.”

Despite the added pressure to avenge last year’s Grey Cup loss to Edmonton — a game LaFrance spent mostly on the sidelines — LaFrance said his body and mind are in a good place. It’s excitement he feels, having already proven he can perform when the stakes are high. He’ll also have his greatest supporter along with him watching, as he’s flying his mother in from Winnipeg.

“I got to have her there,” he said. “This is an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton