For the second time since taking the reins of the UBC Thunderbirds in 2015, Blake Nill has pulled a top quarterback out of the hat.
After Michael O’Connor left Penn State to lead the T-Birds to Vanier Cup victory in 2015, Nill this time headed to Texas, where he got his hands on Garrett Rooker.
The American story is anything but banal. The son of a retired professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University, Rooker played at the highest level in Texas high schools, where he performed in front of 10,000 spectators. In addition to football, he played basketball, a sport he gave up in college.
A UBC graduate student and alumnus of his father’s Rooker gave the Thunderbirds basketball coach a film of Garrett’s best plays. He contacted Nill to tell him that he also played football.
“I had never been to Canada and it became my second home,” said the kinesiology student, who plans to study medicine after completing his first degree. “I could have tried my luck in Division 1 of the NCAA, but I didn’t receive a scholarship and would have had to play as a guest player [walk on].”
An enthusiastic father
That’s where Nill came into play. “From a financial perspective, it made sense to study at UBC and it is a good school. My father was “wow” when I told him that I had the chance to continue my studies at UBC, which he knew because of the former students. I will graduate in 2024 before returning to the United States to pursue medical school, as Americans are not accepted to study medicine at UBC.
Olympic calm
Because of his experience at the highest level in Texas, Rooker displays an Olympian calm. “He is used to acting under pressure and is very calm,” said Nill, who has five other Americans in his squad. I hope his peace will help us. At the Uteck Cup, you could see the Western quarterback’s frustration. The RSEQ teams always have good defense and it will be a good challenge.”
“The expectations for me have been high since I was young,” added Rooker, whose position coach is Mason Nyhus, who defeated the Carabins in the 2021 Mitchell Cup wearing the Saskatchewan Huskies jersey. “Montreal has a good defense and offers multiple fronts and coverage, but they have never struggled with an offense like ours.”