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Hard-luck running back to speak at Dawgs banquet

The guest speaker at the fourth annual Okotoks Dawgs Awards Banquet has words of inspiration by a Nobel Peace prize winner posted on his website, but they are from an unexpected source.
Calgary Stampeder running back Jesse Lumsden will be the guest speaker at the Okotoks Dawgs banquet on Jan. 22 at the Foothills Centennial Centre. Lumsden is hoping to return
Calgary Stampeder running back Jesse Lumsden will be the guest speaker at the Okotoks Dawgs banquet on Jan. 22 at the Foothills Centennial Centre. Lumsden is hoping to return to football in 2011 after an injury-plagued pro career.

The guest speaker at the fourth annual Okotoks Dawgs Awards Banquet has words of inspiration by a Nobel Peace prize winner posted on his website, but they are from an unexpected source.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

These days, running back Jesse Lumsden is inspired by those words more than ever as he plans to play football in 2011 with the Calgary Stampeders after missing a large part of the past three season due to injuries.

Lumsden, the 2004 Hec Crighton winner as Canada’s most outstanding collegiate player, will be the guest speaker at the Dawgs’ banquet Jan. 22 at the Foothills Centennial Centre.

“At the banquet I will be speaking mostly about goal-setting and adversity,” Lumsden said. “(About) having gone through the ropes of college football, the NFL, the CFL and now my Olympic experiences and the adversities I have faced and how I have tried to overcome them.”

Lumsden’s promising CFL career has been sidelined due to injuries each of the last three seasons, including stints with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Edmonton Eskimos and the Stampeders. Last year he tore the ACL in his knee in the last regular season game of the year. He had missed 16 games due to a shoulder separation the previous season.

“The last few years I have had some unfortunate luck — I had not had a major injury up until three years ago,” Lumsden said. “I know I can play the game of football and things happen that are out of my control. I am going to control what I can control, work hard and come back stronger and faster than ever.”

He plans to play football next season, hopefully with the Stamps.

Just listening to Lumsden one realizes there is more to him than just football.

“My voice didn’t always sound like this,” Lumsden said. “I had a scare with some lesions on my vocal cords just before the Olympics (2010) and going through the process of biopsies and surgery is part of what I had to go through. It’s not just what you do on the football field.”

He urges young athletes to keep the game in perspective.

“I chose to become a professional football player, and I knew the risks and rewards,” Lumsden said. “I love to compete whether it’s bobsledding or whatever.

“I have been very fortunate to have the career I have had… When something hits you close to home that can affect yourself and your family, you realize competing is a luxury, not life.”

Bobsleigh is now part of Lumsden’s competitive life. He was a member of Canada’s fifth-place teams in both the four-men and two-men bobsleigh at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Pierre Lueders, an Olympic gold medalist, piloted both teams. Lumsden is now training to be the pilot of a bobsleigh team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

Lumsden just missed playing in arguably the biggest sports league in the world, the National Football League.

He was cut by the Seattle Seahawks in 2005 and was a late cut by the Washington Redskins in 2006.

“Going into Seattle I was definitely green and didn’t know what to expect,” Lumsden said. “Going into Washington, I had a half a year of football with the Tiger-Cats and it was a much better experience.”

He was the last player cut by the Redskins.

“I enjoyed it and worked hard,” Lumsden said. “We were into Week 1 of the regular season when I got cut. I even got a call from a real estate agent telling me it was time to get an apartment. It was definitely a heartbreaker when I got cut.”

Lumsden caught the eye of some NFL scouts not only through his successful collegiate career at McMasters University, but also while playing in the East-West Shrine game in 2004. It’s a game Okotoks receiver Anthony Parker will play in on Jan. 22.

His advice to Parker would be to enjoy the experience.

“The media attention can be overwhelming,” Lumsden said. “I remember an ESPN reporter wrote I didn’t deserve to be there. Then I went and led the East in rushing.

“I would tell him to just go out there and play your game. You got chosen for a reason.”

The quarterback for the East was current Buffalo Bill Ryan Fitzpatrick. One of the runners Lumsden outrushed in the game was Ryan Grant now of the Green Bay Packers.

Tickets for the Okotoks Dawgs banquet are available by contacting Jim Wildeman at 403-861-0719 or by calling the Dawgs’ office at 403-262-DAWG (3294).

Proceeds will go towards the Dawgs’ programs, which promotes baseball in the foothills area.

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