Robertson charges forward

Hyacks quarterback commits to Windsor Lancers

Tommy Robertson, quarterback for the New Westminster Hyacks, made a clear decision between his twin athletic passions: football and lacrosse. Robertson committed last week to the University of Windsor, choosing the OUA to start the next stage of his football career.

Tommy Robertson

Position: Quarterback

Height/Weight: 6’3’’, 180 lbs.

Teams: New Westminster Hyacks

Commitment: Windsor

Class: 2014

Courtesy: Alan Wardle

The New Westminster Hyacks emerged slowly this past season from the shadow of a very difficult 2012, and Robertson was given his chance to shine brighter. The team’s 6-4 record was the first winning season of the Hyack seniors’ high school careers and Robertson’s quarterback performance was a big piece of the puzzle.

While Robertson put in solid performances throughout his eight years in the Hyacks football program, as a youth and in high school, his athletic passions are split between football and lacrosse. Lacrosse enjoys enormous popularity in New Westminster, and often captures the hearts of its young athletes. Robertson’s coach, Farhan Lalji, describes New West lacrosse culture as an intergenerational passion.

“There are a lot of fathers that grew up playing lacrosse and all their kids play lacrosse from four or five years old,” Lalji says, “The kids have a real affinity for the sport, and once they start playing for a few years it is tough to get them into other sports.”

Tommy Robertson coaches Lukas Lalji in lacrosse – Courtesy: Farhan Lalji

Robertson has played both lacrosse and football through his life and had sought to continue that into university.

“Originally I tried to play lacrosse and football at the next level,” Robertson says, “But there were not a lot of schools looking for an athlete that wants to play both sports. They wanted me to play one or the other.”

Robertson and Lalji worked hard to try to make his two-sport dream a reality, but came up against the more complex realities of university sports, including convincing coaches to let a quarterback like Robertson pull a potentially distracting double duty.

“[Tommy] and I sat down and researched schools that offered both sports at the Division 2 level and we contacted over 20 of them,” Lalji says, “We got a lot of positive feedback with about 5 or 6 lacrosse and football coaches saying they wanted to recruit him, but at the end of the day nobody wanted to recruit him for both. That was especially true for football, because he’s a quarterback and they need him full time, and to be a leader.”

Unlike many of New West’s young athletes, Robertson has a secret football weapon in his father, Lorne, who played for Vancouver’s legendary flag football team, the Dolphins, in the 1980s. Thanks to his father, Robertson grew up instilled with a passion for football that matched the Royal City’s passion for lacrosse. For Robertson it was that true passion for football that made the choice to pursue university gridiron an easy one.

“It wasn’t a terribly hard decision because my heart always kept coming back to football and how I wasn’t ready to give it up,” Robertson says, “By choosing football it doesn’t mean that lacrosse is over for me either. I still get to play box lacrosse in the summer when I return home.”

Coach Lalji believes that Robertson has made the right decision for reasons that go beyond his personal bias for the gridiron and into the big choices of a fulfilled life.

“I think the best decision for all kids is to follow what’s in their heart,” Lalji says, “I think he’s a good prospect in both sports. He is a highly competitive lacrosse player and I think he could do well in that sport had he gone to the States, but I think from a football perspective I think he is just scratching the surface of what he could do as a quarterback.”

As for the father that started it all, Lorne Robertson has been a huge support for his son and his team, and according to Coach Lalji, the distance from New West to Windsor won’t stop that.

“Lorne is heavily involved in our program, but he doesn’t want a high profile role,” Lalji says, “He will be behind the scenes, doing all the dirty work. He’s a wonderful guy and I am sure he is going to be making quite a few trips to Windsor because it would kill him not to be able to see Tommy do these things.”

Lalji sees a bright future for the departing Hyack quarterback as he heads to the bigger stage of the University of Windsor and takes his place among the Lancers.

“Tommy has in the past year become a real student of the game,” Lalji says, “Now that he is at that stage mentally, I think the sky is the limit for him, because he is very good physically.”

The coach also reserves some of the highest praise for Robertson that someone can bestow on another person.

“I hope that my son would grow up to be like Tommy,” Lalji says, “He’s a high character kid. I can’t say enough good things about him as a person.”

For his part, Robertson is thrilled with his commitment to Windsor and can’t say enough positive things about the school and it’s football program.

“I am very excited and looking forward to spending my time at Windsor next year,” Robertson says, “I committed to Windsor for a number of reasons starting with the people. Every single staff member, especially Coach D’Amore, and player were very welcoming and made me feel like I belonged. Secondly, my decision was based on facilities. Windsor had incredible facilities including an indoor track, spacious weight room, and gorgeous field. The third major reason was the city and it’s location. I had a ton of fun driving around the city and it’s very convenient how close it is to Detroit. Finally, the school is strong academically which is important and it has the courses I want to take.”

(Featured image courtesy: Alan Wardle)

Max Olesen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/WritingOlesen