sportkingston - The authoritative source for Golden Gaels football and Kingston Area high school sports

sportkingston Staff

Claude Scilley
Brought To You By

DCSun Internet Technologies
AutoWizard.ca
Kingston Paint & Decorating
Thank You To All Our Generous Supporters!
We Need Your Help Too!
Help Support This Site
Site Information

About This Site

Contact Us

Home > Articles > CIS Football > Ex-Gael helps to steer Kyle O'Hara to Queen's

Ex-Gael helps to steer Kyle O'Hara to Queen's


Posted: April 16th, 2013 @ 9:21pm




By CLAUDE SCILLEY

The first time Kyle O'Hara visited the Queen's University campus, it had nothing to do with football.

"I was in middle school and we came to Kingston for a basketball tournament," O'Hara said.

While he was here, his coach took the team on a tour of the campus. "That was my first taste of the Queen's experience," he said, "and from that I knew I wanted to come here."

Tuesday, the defensive back from Ashbury College in Ottawa committed to spend at least the next four years at Queen's, when he signed to play football for the Golden Gaels.

It wasn't by random chance that those basketball players ended up touring Queen's all those years ago. The coach of that team was Jon Landon, the former Golden Gaels star who went on to win a Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts.

"I loved the campus," O'Hara said. "Everybody seemed friendly. I noticed that the support for athletics and athletes here is amazing. From there I knew that Queen's was one of the top places I wanted to go."

Landon, who grew up in Kingston, also coaches the Ashbury football team, and has coached O'Hara from Grade 9.

"He's a really fun guy, a great coach. He connected with the players very well," O'Hara said. "I could go to him with any problems I had. He was a huge factor in my development as a player - but he always told me that education was important as well.

"I know I'll be receiving a world-class education here. I'm very happy to be part of this program."

Gaels coach Pat Sheahan said Landon alerted him to O'Hara's potential as a university football player - "he's a fine athlete, big, physical, he runs well - a young Andrew Lue type of guy" - and as it turned out, Queen's wasn't a tough sell.

"By the time we reached him he very much had Queen's on his mind," Sheahan said. "His family is American, so the Ivy League brand of schooling was something that was important to them. I think our message struck a chord with them."

O'Hara will be pursuing global studies, with an eye to one day entering law school.

He's happy to be pursuing those studies in Canada, something about which he wasn't so sure when he and his family arrived six years ago from Charlotte, N.C.

"I moved during the winter," he recalled. "I was amazed by how much snow is here in Canada, and it's cold every day. It was a huge adjustment for me but I've had a great experience here. I love living here and I want to stay in the future."
Related Articles:


Support sportkingston

Thank You To All Our Generous Supporters!
We Need Your Help Too!
Help Support This Site
Follow sportkingston

Follow Us On Twitter
Follow Us On Twitter
Recent Stories


He coached young men, not just football players
All done
Queen's athletes win major volleyball awards
To buy or not to buy
QE splits two games at EOSSAA single-A basketball
KC downs Frontenac in EOSSAA basketball final
Weekend defeats send Gaels to preliminary playoff round
Queen's to host men's basketball playoff Wednesday
High school volleyball matches tonight at Regi
EOSSAA will try again to play basketball Tuesday
Categories


Amateur Sport

Baseball

Basketball

CIS Football

Cross Country

Fastball

Field hockey

Football

Frontenacs 50th

Grenadiers Football

High School Sports

Hockey

Intercollegiate Sport

Junior Hockey

Kingston Kings

Lacrosse

Napanee Express

Opinion

Pan Am Games

Queen's football

RMC Looking Back

Rowing

Rugby

Sailing

Soccer

Today In Jr. Hockey Playoff History

Track and field

Uncategorized

Volleyball
Search

Looking for a specific article, person, event, or subject?





Management Login

Powered By FlexCMS
Powered By FlexCMS