Jason Halstead/CFL.ca
Paul Kozachuk could feel his angst increasing as he heard the numbers called out. The University of Toronto linebacker looked around at dozens of other participants in the CFL National Scouting Combine presented by adidas and didn’t recognize any faces.
He worried that he was going to have to make something of an odd request to a stranger, but he was willing to do it. He couldn’t go through the curtain and out in front of a crowd to the bench press at the Winnipeg Convention Centre without getting something out of the way first.
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Thankfully, finally, he saw Eric Mezzalira, the McMaster linebacker that was with him at the regional combine a couple weeks back in Toronto.
It helps if there’s someone there that’s done this for him before.
“Usually when you say, ‘Hey, can you hit me in the face?’ they’re like, ‘uhhh…’” Kozachuk said on Saturday night. “It’s like, ‘No, I actually mean it.’ Then they give you a soft tap.
“I got Eric last time and Eric knows what the deal is there. Give me a good one with the right then the left to even it out.”
The numbers continued to be called out. There was no time for humming and moral hawing over this. Mezzalira did what was asked of him. A left to the face, then a right. It’s open hand, to be clear, but you’ve got to make it count.
“I’m not getting punched in the face,” he said. “I’d have to put a mouth guard for that.”
Of course.
Kozachuk took his hits, had his number called, laid down under the bar and managed 17 reps. He said he actually hit 18, matching what he did in Toronto the last time Mezzalira hit him in the face, but had one docked.
The pre-lift face slap is a longstanding tradition for the fourth-year Varsity Blue.
“I mean, it’s not a game day thing. It’s a different kind of level, I guess, for working out,” he explained.
“I’ve been doing that…earliest recorded memory? I think in grade 13 before I had a big squat or something. It’s just when you’ve got to max out effort.”
The kinesiology and physical education student had his best season in U SPORTS in 2017. His 48 tackles were second on the team and he led the Blues with two forced fumbles. On comfortable grounds at the U of T campus, he turned a strong regional combine performance into a national camp invite. He isn’t ecstatic with his performance so far this weekend — 17 reps on the bench, a 4.81 40-yard dash, a 4.33-second shuttle and a 7.49-second three-cone drill — but he doesn’t feel like he’s done terribly, either.
“It’s a great experience. It’s a privilege just to be invited here,” he said. “To go regional first…it’s good to get a practice run, I guess. I’m happy I got a chance to do all the tests (at the regional). They can look back (and compare).”
It’s been a strenuous couple of weeks for him, but they’ll wrap up Sunday. After interviewing with six teams this weekend, he hopes he’ll have a better sense of his football future.
He was at least in the right frame of mind when he went out for his bench press.
“It’s just more of a central nervous thing,” he said of the face slaps. “Go in guns blazing.”
