Jorgen rules! Hus wins Jake Gaudaur Veterans' Award

11/15/2024 03:05 PM

Long snappers typically relish a lack of attention.

In their line of work, near-anonymity often signals a job well done. The alternative is to propel a snap into the third row and garner plenty of unwelcome publicity.

On Thursday night, however, the limelight found the longest-serving member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders — Jorgen Hus — for all the right reasons.

The Saskatoon-born long snapper, a Roughrider since 2015, received the Jake Gaudaur Veterans' Award when the CFL handed out its hardware in Vancouver.

"We have a lot of guys who could easily win that award as well," Hus said, "so just to have your name in that conversation means a lot."

Hus completes a hat trick for the Roughriders, who also had a member of the team recognized with the Gaudaur trophy in 2022 (Dan Clark) and 2023 (Brayden Lenius).

"You can't say enough about Dan Clark laying the groundwork," Hus said. "He has been incredible for everything that we do."

The award was established in 2010 in honour of former CFL Commissioner Jake Gaudaur, a distinguished Second World War veteran.

Each year at the CFL Awards, a presentation is made to a national player who embodies the attributes Gaudaur possessed and are associated with Canada's veterans — strength, perseverance, courage, comradeship and contributions to Canadian communities.

Nominating Hus for that distinction was, well, a snap.

"I'm really proud of what he has been able to do," Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation Executive Director Cindy Fuchs said.

Before the Foundation was launched in 2019, Fuchs was affiliated with the Red Cross for 35 years — the last 12 of which were spent as the Vice-President of Saskatchewan.

In that capacity, she worked closely with the Roughriders organization and many of the players. It didn't take her very long to develop an appreciation and admiration for Hus, who travelled to the far north in May of 2016 as part of a Red Cross delegation.

"We went to Nunavut to talk to kids," Fuchs recalled. "They had no clue who the Riders were, but it didn't really matter.

"What was most important was that he was up there and he was able to talk to people about his time in the community. He was able to talk about bullying and relationships and making positive choices."

It was a positive choice for Hus to make the whirlwind trip, which included six school visits over five days.

"There were some life-changing moments," Hus said. "It was my rookie off-season and I had one of the most impactful times of my career so far with youth.

"We went to a youth detention centre and these kids were all under 18. They were in there for various reasons.

"We went in there with a plan and, as soon as we sat down at the table, the plan kind of got thrown out the window. We just talked.

"It was real, authentic. They didn't break eye contact the whole time. It was a moving experience for everybody, myself included.

"We chatted for an hour, an hour and a half. It was just impactful for everybody. We all got something from it."

Hus has continued to immerse himself in initiatives that benefit youth, in adherence with the Foundation's mandate.

"The game has done so much for me over the years that I try and give back in any way I can, whether it's football or off the field," he said.

"I feel like it's kind of our responsibility to do that."

Even so, Hus goes above and beyond.

"We did the math," Fuchs noted. "He has reached about 20,000 kids in his (CFL) career.

"This is just in a very few months every year, part-time, while also playing football, also having his career as a mortgage broker, and also having a family, and also living in Saskatoon among his family.

"Twenty thousand is a lot. That's like a small town."

Hus often speaks to youngsters about anxiety in his role as a player ambassador for the Roughrider Foundation, which offers mental-health-oriented Win with Wellness presentations.

"Public speaking wasn't something I was good at," recalled Hus, 35. "I had always kind of shied away from that growing up and I always got really nervous.

"It was definitely a fear that I wanted to conquer. You want to do these things, so you've got to tackle it head-on. That's really the only way to deal with these things. You do that and you get more comfortable with it.

"Throughout the off-season, you save notes about what works and what doesn't. You just grow and you get better, like you would at anything else."

Fuchs has noticed, appreciated and even facilitated that growth while working closely with Hus for the better part of a decade.

"Jorgen puts 110 per cent into everything — football, his career, his family, and the presentations to kids," she said.

"When he first did it, he struggled a little bit. Last year, when I went to watch him in the classroom, I was like, 'Who is this guy?' He was so polished and so good. But he still asked me, 'Cindy, how did I do?'

"So when I called him to congratulate him about this award, the first thing he said was, 'I don't know. There's a lot of people who deserve it.' I said, 'Jorgen, just take it. You deserve it.'

"He said, 'Yeah, but you helped me, and so-and-so helped me.' I said, 'Just take the accolades. You deserve them.' "