Lasting bond

Kingston linebacker solidifies relationship with commitment to OUA team.

A long standing relationship can go far.

Case and point for David Hron.  Recently, the 6’2, 220 pound linebacker/longsnapper from Kingston, Ontario signed with the Ottawa Gee-Gees for the 2014 OUA season.

Hron comes to the Gee-Gees after completing his high school career with the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers of the Kingston Area Secondary School Athletic Association (KASSAA).  Additionally, the linebacker suited up for the Kingston Grenadiers of the Ontario Varsity Football League (OVFL). In the 2013 season, he registered 23 assisted and 20 solo tackles.  Hron also recorded a sack, had a blocked kick, a batted ball and a fumble recovery for the Grenadiers.

Following his commitment to the Gee-Gees, Hron issued the following statement:

“Before my commitment to uOttawa Gee-Gees my relationship with the school, team and coaches has gone a long way. Like almost every recruiting everything started when coach Costanzo has emailed me asking for my highlight tape. My recruitment with the Gee-Gees also did not start until December so compared to other schools they were quite behind. It did not take long after I have sent coach Costanzo my tape, until I have had my first phone call with him, when he asked me about my honest opinion about uOttawa and where would I rank them among all other schools I was getting recruited by. I was totally honest with him and told him that they were at about third or fourth place if I had to decide, where to go to school now.”

“One of the things that I remember from the first phone calls with Coach (Luigi) Costanzo was, that he told me that he will do his best to move uOttawa in my rankings to number one and he achieved that goal.”

“My main deciding factor about where to go to school was the academics so I did my homework and only applied to schools that I was satisfied enough with on the academic side of university experience. One major factor that helped uOttawa compared to for example Queen’s, in which I was heavily interested before, was the fact, that uOttawa offers many co-op programs and for me as a future mechanical engineer, that was a big positive, because I will for sure want to get experience in my field before I am done school.”

“My feelings about uOttawa have change immediately after I have met with all the coaches in person. Even though most of the coaching staff is quite new, they all together make a great team of coaches and I could tell how much work they have done already during my first visit at Ottawa. Head Coach (Jamie) Barresi and his experience from many football schools from the U.S. (such as Penn State, Wake Forest and Florida), was as well one of my deciding criteria, as well as how nice of a person and family type of a guy he is.”

“Another thing that I really like about Head Coach Barresi is, that he takes care of his players on as well as off the field. There are many things that he does to make successful men out of the boys that come there and I will be honoured to be another one of them.”

“Probably the biggest deciding factor about going to uOttawa was my interview with the defensive coordinator Murphy. We have talked together just pure football talk for couple of hours and I could already feel the chemistry and right connections being made. I feel that I share the same opinions with him on many things and I was surprised how open he was the first time I stepped into his office and told me: “I will show you anything you want to see, from game film through work outs, up to the complete defensive playbook.” And he did. Him and coach (Steve) Watts are a very powerful duo that I am looking forward to work within couple of months.”

“When my time of deciding where to go has come, I have added all the small things together and decided to commit to uOttawa because it came out as the winner out of all schools. I will have my co-op engineering program that I wanted my family in town, I won’t be that far from Kingston, Toronto or Montreal and I will have the best coaches that share the same values on and off the field as I do.”

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