Sisler grad in search of a football home

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This article was published 07/04/2023 (979 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richard Lugumire was an NCAA Division II athlete last Monday preparing for the upcoming football season.

Less than 48 hours later, the 19-year-old Winnipegger cleaned out his locker and left with no idea when — or even if — he’d set foot on the field again.

Lugumire, a quarterback out of Sisler High School who was converted to wide receiver, wasn’t alone. Each of his teammates at Simon Fraser (B.C.) University was in the very same predicament.

SFU, Canada’s lone NCAA football program, folded Tuesday.

The Lone Star Conference, which primarily consists of teams from Texas, announced it was not going to invite the Burnaby, B.C., school back for the 2024 season. Instead of playing one final campaign, SFU officials decided to axe the program now.

Lugumire is the only Manitoban on the SFU Red Leafs’ roster.

“One of my teammates came up to me and said, ‘Dang, man, we were literally a team yesterday. And now everybody, and everything is gone.’ It was big news that nobody saw coming, Especially at this time as we had just finished training camp last week,” said Lugumire, in a telephone interview.

“It’s very, very, very devastating news.”

Lugumire heard rumblings the 2023 season might be the squad’s final season in the conference, but he didn’t expect the carpet to be pulled from under their feet at the last minute. With NCAA and U Sports seasons right around the corner, SFU players are in a mad scramble to find new landing spots.

The University of Manitoba Bisons have already contacted a few.

Lugumire red-shirted in 2021 and was sidelined last season with an injury, so he still has all of his years of university eligibility left. He’s already heard from a few programs that tried to recruit him when he was at Sisler.

SFU never had a winning season after joining the NCAA in 2010. The program went 1-9 in 2022 and lost 33 straight games between Oct. 25, 2014 and Sept. 1, 2018.

Despite the losing history, Lugumire still viewed SFU as a perfect fit. He started at quarterback for Sisler’s varsity team in Grade 10 and Grade 11, but lost out on his entire senior year owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My dream growing up was to play in the states, to play NCAA Division I football. I had released my junior year film and that got a lot of attention from basically all the Canadian schools, but I wanted to play in America. But also during that time, it was during the whole BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement, and I just felt unsafe and uneasy about going to America and playing there,” said Lugumire.

“So, when SFU called me, it was like the perfect opportunity because I got to play American football, stay in Canada, and got to basically live in the prettiest, most beautiful place in Canada as well.”

Lugumire maintains problems with the football program started at the very top.

“It just feels like the people in charge are always ready to give up and that’s kind of been the pattern that I’ve seen here. If I could say anything, I would just say we need better leaders. We need people who aren’t just interested in their own well-being and their own status, but also the overall well-being for athletes and specifically for the football program,” he said.

“There’s an instability with how the program was run in general. It flows from the top down. So, if the top is inconsistent, it’s very likely the program will be very inconsistent. Like there’s always a new head coach every other year, so it’s very hard to see the program become successful because the people in charge are not putting in as much effort.”

“I personally think if the program was in better hands, it could be very successful.”

Lugumire was born in Congo and spent the first four years of his life there. His only memory of the country is when his family was forced to flee to Uganda because of a war.

The family applied for asylum in Canada and was originally told the process would take months, however, they ended up spending six years in the East Africa nation before finally being able to immigrate to Winnipeg.

“Being raised by a single mom with three kids in Africa, it’s really hard to survive as a woman, let alone a single mom because of just the patriarchy that’s there. So, my mom had to do all she could to provide, and I remember at age seven I was working collecting scrap metal and selling it just to help provide for the family,” he said.

“And then I remember at age nine, when our asylum application got granted and we were finally allowed to come here. We came here and it was a whole culture shock. I remember the first week I was surprised and just thrown aback by the fact that my palms were literally clean. My hands weren’t dirty for a week straight and I had never had that happen in my life.”

At age 12, Lugumire started playing flag football. He discovered he had a pretty good arm, so heading into high school, he was determined to make the team as a quarterback.

His ability to also run the football made him a dual threat that gave opposing defences headaches.

“He’s just someone that you want the ball in his hands because he’s going to do something with it,” said Sisler football head coach Sean Esselmont.

“As a quarterback, as an athlete, we ran a lot of zone-read stuff and he was always a threat to run. And when he did run, it was either a first down or a touchdown.”

His main source of motivation was, and still is, to be able to provide a better life for his mother, Judith Byamungu, who still lives in Winnipeg and works in child care.

Even though his time at SFU is likely over, Lugumire remains positive.

“The beautiful thing about my life in general and the obstacles I’ve overcame, is that I personally believe that I never, ever, ever had to go through any of that alone…And so, if I can say anything about the challenges I’m facing right now, I’m very optimistic that it will all work out because I’ve seen it work out over and over again.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31