LCI football players commit to Canadian universities

By Lethbridge Herald on February 8, 2023.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Jake Gedrasik and Connor Broad signed their Letter of Intent on Wednesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Two LCI Rams football players are heading for post-secondary opportunities in the sport  beginning next season after signing their Letter of Intent on Wednesday during a ceremony.

Jake Gedrasik signed on with the University of Regina Rams while Connor Broad has committed to go back to his home province of Ontario to play with the York University Lions next season.

“Well, I’m from Ontario,” said Broad.

“So having family out by York kind of helped with that decision. But going to see the programs and the school, the campus is amazing and I always looked into criminology, which is a big focal point in their schooling. And knowing how young their coaches are (and) how young their program is. I just want to go there and help bring success to that program.”

With his grandpa having been a cop, Broad always looked going into law enforcement.

“And seeing that they had criminology, as well as a football team that I’d like to join, that kind of just clicked and made the decision quite easy,” said Broad.

Broad says knowing that he missed his Grade 10 year, it made it more difficult to settle into high school.

“But I’ve only played football for two, three years now,” said Broad.

“And getting to know coach (Patrick) Leahy as well as coach Dave Lowry — which they were both big impacts in my life —and they kind of introduced me to the sport, as well as a few of the different teammates that I had. They were just excellent role models  that I had on the field and they allowed me to use my skills to bring success to the team.”

Broad had also been speaking to University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University before making his decision to commit to York.

Broad will be playing as a defensive back for the Lions.

For Stirling’s Gedrasik, he will probably be playing defensive guard at U of R.

“The coaching staff definitely sold it for me,” he said.

“They’re awesome people. And the players, when I went on my official visit, I definitely had a great time being out with the guys.”

U of R was the only serious offer Gedrasik received.

Gedrasik will enroll in Sciences, with the hope of getting a chemistry degree and ultimately go into pharmacy school.

“Being an out of town player, I was definitely nervous coming in,” said Gedrasik, on his time at LCI.

“But I definitely felt like the coaching staff (and) players adopted me well. I had a great time and loved it here.”

“So to have two of our guys this year, Connor and Jake, move on to play post-secondary ball,  kind of shows that we’re moving in the direction we want to as a program, and hopefully we continue doing that,” said coach Leahy.

Leahy said, “Awesome impacts,” when it came to what these players did for the team.

“ … Jake was a league All-Star for the last two years playing offensive line; he was the most outstanding lineman in the league this year,” said Leahy.

“So I mean that obviously kind of says how other coaches in the league viewed him and what we thought of him as a linemen. And then Connor worked himself into being probably I think the best kicker in the league this year ,quite frankly, as far as that’s concerned. So he was a league All-star at kicking as well. He’s going to York as a defensive back and that kind of speaks to his versatility and what he did for us this year too.”