Landry: Rookie Nicastro prepared for heated LD Weekend battle

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

Into the fire you go, young man. Into the fire.

For Toronto Argonauts’ rookie offensive lineman Peter Nicastro, Monday’s clash with the Hamilton Ticats will be his first experience with the kiln-hot temperatures of a Mark’s Labour Day Weekend Classic.

You know what happens in a kiln? The well-constructed pieces come out stronger. The not so well-constructed? They crack.

Nicastro appears to be – at least ahead of this game – to be a well-constructed piece.

“Do your assignment and do your job and it’ll all turn out,” the 22-year-old Calgary native says, flatly, pointing to preparation as the key to any football game, even one as steeped in tradition and couched in intensity as this annual tilt is. “They’re some of the best D linemen in the CFL,” he says of the Ticats’ group. “Expecting a great battle.”

Expecting a great battle.

That’s an understatement, if you buy into the myth and the lore of Labour Day.

Nicastro’s not going into it with blinders on, however. The former University of Calgary Dino is not unaware, he’s just keeping it cool. And he’s being prepared, mentally, by veterans and coaches who’ve seen it all before.

“The guys have been telling me how crazy Labour Day is,” he says, in a way that makes him sound more curious than daunted, really.

The shouting fans. The trash-talking opposition. An intensity unlike anything Nicastro has experienced previously. That is what’s coming up for the rookie, says Toronto radio analyst and former Argos’ receiver Natey Adjei. University rivalry games are one thing. This will be another.

“This is going to be, maybe, that times ten,” Adjei says.

Adjei’s first ever CFL start came in a Labour Day Classic, back in 2014. He remembers the pumped up atmosphere of that day and has some advice; don’t get sucked in to straying from who you really are.

“If you’re an even-keel kind of guy, just be yourself,” says Adjei, “and you’ll be fine. Guys get in trouble when they try to do something out of character.”

That seems to be the blueprint that Nicastro intends to follow as he gets set for the biggest emotionally-competitive test of his young career.

“You know, it’s just football, at the end of the day, so don’t get caught up in the noise or get too fired up,” Nicastro says, echoing advice he says he’s gotten from some of his teammates.

Toronto’s offensive line coach, Stephen McAdoo, doesn’t think Nicastro will have much of a problem in adjusting to the Labour Day energy frenzy, noting that it didn’t take long for the rookie to get his pro legs under him.

“His temperament is good,” says McAdoo. “That part is always good. From my standpoint, how would he handle being in that atmosphere? I don’t think he would be overwhelmed by it. I think he’ll come in and look at it as a challenge.”

The Argos selected Nicastro in the first round of this year’s draft, seventh overall, so you know they had high hopes for him. Did they envision him topping the depth chart right away? Probably not, but he emerged as the starting left guard and has been on the line for each of the team’s games.

“He just became one of the guys that stood out a little bit more than the others,” says McAdoo, heaping praise on Nicastro’s work ethic. “Been workin’ his butt off.”

“Being a rookie in the first three games, you know, I’m holding my own,” says Nicastro, a Vanier Cup Champion in 2019. He adds that he has a lot to learn, a lot to adjust to. Pro defences are something else entirely, compared to university ball.

“The schemes that they’re running, it’s a lot different than university,” he says, adding that the speed at the CFL level is also something that’s taken getting used to. “That’s the biggest part for me.”

Must’ve been something, I tell him, to take on some well-known veteran defenders. What, I wonder, was it like when the Blue Bombers first shifted Willie Jefferson to the inside for a snap, right over him? “It’s pretty cool playing against guys like that,” Nicastro says, insisting that preparation and execution are top of mind, even when Big Willie is staring at you.

On occasion – in each of his first three games – Nicastro’s been bumped over to centre when an injury shuffle was necessary, even though he hadn’t played the position since 2018, when he did so for just a few games with the Dinos.

So far, so good in his introductory season. Nicastro is looking the part and he’s even had a bit of a taste of what the Labour Day kiln will be like, having played in Winnipeg in Week 2.

“The crowd was amazing,” he says, admitting that he did get a little overly amped up at the outset. “There was times where (he told himself) ‘hey, got to calm down. Take a couple deep breaths and just play football.’ I get super excited,” he says, about game time arriving.

“From the sounds of it, that’s the kind of atmosphere they’re gonna have in Hamilton. That fires everybody up on the team, so I’m just looking forward to being in a game like that.”

What might be a bit different for Nicastro on Labour Day, is the amount of emotional chatter that will almost certainly go on. Through his first three games, he says, he wasn’t subjected to any kind of ruthless verbal taunting from either the Calgary Stampeders or the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“I’m a little surprised,” Nicastro admits. “I thought for sure there’d be some talking back and forth but I haven’t heard too much directed at me. There’s little chirps here and there. Nothing crazy though.”

Okay, then. At some point, I tell him, he can expect a stream of trash during the Labour Day contest. I mean, doesn’t everybody get it from Simoni Lawrence somewhere along the line?

Nicastro laughs the kind of laugh that says he’s well aware of the veteran linebacker’s reputation.

And he’s ready for the intensity of Labour Day Monday, in Hamilton. At least he thinks so.

“I’ve watched a lot of Labour Day games in Calgary, so I have an idea,” he says.

“But, it’s hard to know until you’re out on the field.”

Crack, or come out even stronger.

ADJEI ON THE SIMONI EFFECT

Adjei warns Nicastro – and anybody else who hasn’t lined up opposite Lawrence – to be on guard. Because Lawrence will attempt to take them out of their authentic selves, you can bet on that.

“I’ve seen him,” says Adjei, “get guys out of character, get guys to do stuff that they don’t normally do.”

“I’ve seen him take the quietest guys and get them.”

“Like, guys that aren’t trash talkers. I see Simoni going after them, and they start responding. Then he gets happy because that’s not your game. That’s his game, and he gets you in his element.”

Adjei’s advice is simple to say, but maybe a bit harder to execute.

“I would say don’t fall into it,” he warns. “Don’t even listen to him. Don’t fall into that trap.”

Adjei says he’d heard lots from Lawrence over the years, and that much of it wouldn’t be suitable for this column. But not all of it.

“One time our bench was chirping him and he looked at us and said ‘don’t talk! You guys don’t play. Talk to me when your coach thinks you’re good enough to play.’

“I thought ‘hmmm, he’s got a good point,’ and laughed to myself.”

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