The Wilfrid Laurier men’s football coach Michael Faulds added to his highly anticipated recruiting class for his second season with the Golden Hawks on Tuesday.
At an official signing at the Athletic Complex, kicker Nathan Mesher signed with the Hawks for the upcoming 2014 season.
Mesher, a Waterloo native and Sir John A. MacDonald (SJAM) student, played for two years as his high school team’s kicker. In his grade 11 year, Mesher won a championship with SJAM, and made the semifinals in his grade 12 year.
“[I am] just really excited to be here, [and] glad to get accepted into the program I want, be at this school, be all signed up and just ready to get in,” Mesher said.
“It’s great to sign a guy that’s not only a great football player and a great kicker, but also a really good student and wants to study business here at Laurier. And he’s a local kid from here in Waterloo,” Faulds said. “So it’s always special when you sign someone from your own town.”
In terms of how Mesher feels about his new coach, he said that he believes in the man who will soon be his bench boss.
“He’s been great,” Mesher said of Faulds. “He’s explained all about the program and he’s explained all about the school. And he really seems like he genuinely cares about the program and the athletes in the program itself.”
Mesher said that his biggest asset to the Hawks will be that he’s “very accurate.”
According to Mesher, he went 24 for 26 for field goals.
In terms of kicking duties in the upcoming season, Faulds didn’t say whether the rookie will take the starting role, or what the plans were for kicking and punting with the Hawks.
“I’ll leave that to our special teams coordinator, coach Cameron, but it’s kind of a feel for the game,” he said. “You never know when a kicker’s name is going to be called … But in terms of kicking, you need a good, strong kicker for field goals and kick offs.”
Faulds mentioned that Mesher is one of 25 committed students that will join the Golden Hawks next season.
Because only two players from the Hawks graduated this season, Faulds said he didn’t have as much pressure to replace many of his athletes.
“There wasn’t a great pressure to bring in a ton of recruits, we’ve had some quality athletes that will compete with the players we currently have,” he said.
“In terms of how many more players we’ll bring in, we’re probably less than ten away from completing this recruiting class.”
–With files from Heather Davidson
