{"id":26816,"date":"2020-06-18T19:28:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26816"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:29:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T23:29:05","slug":"st-andrews-linebacker-not-content-to-let-grass-grow-under-his-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/st-andrews-linebacker-not-content-to-let-grass-grow-under-his-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Andrew\u2019s linebacker not content to let grass grow under his feet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was the end of February. Andrew Scott was on tour of the\nUniversity of Toronto campus. It\u2019s what he wants. A prestigious university\nencamped beneath the bright lights of the big city. He never wanted to move\naway to school in a small town. This was it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the tour on the very same day, the 6\u20191\nlinebacker from St. Andrew\u2019s College rolled the ball point pen on the contract.\nHe finalized his scholarship without hesitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was given the opportunity to play there, I\nimmediately signed there that night. I am super excited to be there,\u201d Scott\nprofessed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing football, pushing for a major in Philosophy and a\npotential pro career in sights is everything he could ever ask for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, of course, he could not have foreseen the events that\nwere about to unfold. The province shut down in March and schools immediately transferred\nall of their classes online right through to the end of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce I heard that, I thought \u2018Oh, God, sports are in\njeopardy right till January until the kids are back on campus,\u201d said head coach\nof the St. Andrew\u2019s football program Marcello Lio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, USports cancelled all Fall sports in 2020 due to\nCOVID-19. So, now what? What does that mean for athletes trying to prove their\nworth to universities and colleges and what does that mean for the players that\nare there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That could mean double the recruitment in one year and\nplayers have to be ready to play better than they ever have in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott, an Aurora native, is no stranger to an obstacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his first game of the season last year with the Saints,\nhe suffered an injury that kept him out until the final. Still, being one of\nthe captains on the team, he attended practices and games with a sling on his\narm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Lio saw that in him. He said Scott is a silent\nleader, choosing to lead by his examples and motivated the team to believe in\nthe program and the playbook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Lio took over the football program at the beginning of\nthe year, Scott knew this was going to be a test no matter what. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Scott wasn\u2019t a huge football fan, even though it\nmay have been in his blood the whole time. His grandfather, Donald Clayton\nScott, played for the Toronto Argonauts from 1949 to 1951. He won the Grey Cup\nwith the Argos in the infamous \u201cMud Bowl\u201d game in 1950. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott has been to a few Argos games, but when he hit Grade Nine,\nit was time to give football a true chance. He began as a linebacker and when\nhe got into Grade 10 and moved to defensive lineman, he became a Houston Texans\nfan, which, at the time, had arguably two of the best defensive ends in the League\nin J.J Watt and Jadeveon Clowney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would watch the sport in the common room while boarding\nat St. Andrew\u2019s with his friends. The NFL was broadcasted more than the CFL, so\nwhen Sunday rolled around it was a given what the boys were going to watch all\nday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he began Grade 11, Scott felt out of place as a lineman\nand moved back to linebacker. He felt he wouldn\u2019t suit that position on the\nline any further and developed his game as a linebacker, fully focusing on\nfundamentals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I had to work pretty hard for my fundamentals, but\nI was also lucky on my coaching in Grade Nine when I first started playing, was\nvery focused on linebacker fundamentals and getting your read and reaction\ntimes up.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further developing into his position, Scott loves what he\nbrings to a team defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like to focus on bringing an amount of reliability and\ngrit to my game. My favourite way to play the game is in the trenches. I want\nto sit in the middle of the field, play my gaps and hit running backs.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Scott is living in the moment. A pro career would be\nnice, but he knows focusing on improving his game and exceeding his own\nexpectations is the most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He currently attends coach Lio\u2019s social distancing work-outs\nwhile following his own schedule set by Strength and Conditioning coaches Alex\nMalone, Ryan Smith and Gabriel Mendonca at U of T. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Lio says Scott has what it takes to make it pro.\nHe just needs to work on one thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he has every facet anybody is going to look for by\nthe time he gets to his draft year. But I think, primarily, would be the\nathleticism. So, that speed factor with his feet, if he can get it to that\nelite level, because, he\u2019s got the size, he\u2019s got a great frame to build for\nhis size.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a team meeting last Thursday, the coaches sat down with\nthe rookies virtually and discussed residence and enrolment. The plan is to\ncontinue training and lifting weights to prepare for the 2021 season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the only way. If football returned in the spring, not\nonly would there be a limited amount of space for it, but a strenuous season\nwith little recovery time and preparation for the next year is too much to\nembrace in this sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, Scott knows what it takes to be patient and once the season rolls around in 2021, he\u2019ll be more than ready to step out on to the gridiron. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the end of February. Andrew Scott was on tour of the University of Toronto campus. It\u2019s what he wants. A prestigious university encamped beneath the bright lights of the big city. He never wanted to move away to school in a small town. This was it. At the end of the tour on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-06-18-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Yw","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-13 03:42:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}