Words by Rob Vanstone
Trevor Harris has already lit up the SaskTel MaxTron, despite having yet to throw a pass for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“WELCOME TO RIDERVILLE TREVOR HARRIS” was displayed on the stadium’s giant screens after the veteran quarterback signed with the Green and White last week.
Harris and his wife, Kalie, saw the facilities first-hand after they arrived in Regina late in the evening of Feb. 14 — the first day of the Canadian Football League’s free-agency period — and remained in the Queen City until Friday.
During a whirlwind visit, the Harrises toured the stadium, met an assortment of Roughriders employees and supporters, and fielded various questions — including a blizzard of inquiries from yours truly.
The immediate conclusion: The people of Saskatchewan are going to like Trevor and Kalie Harris.
They are friendly, down-to-earth and devoid of airs — although aerials will certainly be part of the equation once training camp begins in May.
Although the 36-year-old signal-caller made it clear in various interviews that performance is paramount, it has always been vitally important for the face of the franchise to embrace the community and interact with the fans.
Rest assured that won’t be a problem for Harris, who is a small-town kid at heart.
We chatted about his roots — he hails from tiny Waldo, Ohio — and developmental years as a quarterback for a considerable portion of a 20-minute session. Information and insights gleaned from that conversation will appear on riderville.com very shortly, with Part 1 to roll out Wednesday and Part 2 to appear the following day.
In 35-plus years of interviewing athletes, rarely has someone made such a positive first impression.
There are so many layers to Trevor Harris, the person, that more than 3,000 words were required to cover (almost) everything. Even then, we didn’t talk a great deal about nuts-and-bolts football issues, primarily because his life has been so interesting and eventful.
A snippet: In middle school, he won a free-throw shooting competition by going 25-for-25.
And when he is on a roll on the football field, there can also be a flirtation with 100-per-cent accuracy — such as his 36-for-39 gem for Edmonton in the 2019 playoffs.
Harris also heated up on July 5, 2015, in just his third CFL start.
He completed 30 of 38 passes for 267 yards and four touchdowns to pilot the Toronto Argonauts to a 42-40 victory over Saskatchewan at old Mosaic Stadium.
The second touchdown pass, to Chad Owens with —- remaining in the fourth quarter, forced overtime.
In OT, Harris threw two more scoring passes, the latter of which was punctuated by a short toss to Anthony Coombs for a two-point conversion that gave Toronto a 42-34 lead. The Roughriders answered with a touchdown pass from Kevin Glenn to Chris Getzlaf, but the unsuccessful two-point attempt allowed Toronto to eke out a two-point victory.
With that classic contest in mind, I was especially intrigued by one comment Harris made early in his introductory session with the Saskatchewan sports media.
“Just to be fully transparent, I told my wife in 2015 when I was playing for Toronto, ‘I’d love to be the quarterback for the Riders someday,’ so this is a dream come true and something that I’ve always wanted,” he said.
“When you come into the league, you invite the high expectations, the pressure, and those sorts of things, so I couldn’t be more elated to be here.
“I’ll never take for granted being able to be the quarterback of this franchise, so I truly look forward to the challenge and the work ahead.”
So, looking backward, I had to ask whether the sentiments he expressed to Kalie in 2015 had anything to do with the fact that the Argonauts came here and won 42-40 on the strength of four touchdown passes.
“That year, the fans weren’t as nice to me,” Harris responded with a chuckle. “They were rude to me, but the environment was electric, and that’s what you want to see.
“I remember very vividly in 2018, when I played for Ottawa, and they shut the lights off before they played ‘Bring ’Em Out!’ I don’t know if (the fans) put their phone lights on or whether they had green glow-sticks or something, but I got the chills thinking about it.
“I was like, ‘This is it, man. This is awesome. This is the heartland of Canada and a place where it would be really, really cool to have that environment.’ It got me really fired up to play that night.
“Those are just surface-level things, but the things that are most important to me are building a relationship in the locker room and making sure that you have alignment from the president down, and I feel that we do have that.
“I feel like it’s a first-class organization through and through. Getting a tour of the facilities, I couldn’t have been more pleased to get to spend time with (president-CEO) Mr. Craig Reynolds, Jeremy (O’Day, vice-president of football operations and general manager) and Coach Craig (Dickenson).
“It has just been a dream come true for my family and I. We’re just elated to be here.”
Judging by the scoreboard, the elation is already widespread.
