HUS HUSTLES ON AND OFF FIELD
Initially, and surprisingly, Hus “hated” football. “I grew up seeing it and I never watched it,” he says. “I was never interested in it at all. Then, one night, my dad had a couple of buddies over and they were just bugging me. They said, ‘Why don’t you give football a shot?’ “I wasn’t the biggest guy in the world, by any means. I was skinny. But I said, ‘OK, I’ll give it a go.’ “When I went out there (to St. Joseph Guardians practice), they put me at cornerback. When a high school kid joins the team halfway through the year, they always throw him at cornerback and give him a number in the 90s. I got my butt kicked every single day, but it was fun. It was fun being on a team. That’s what kept drawing me back to it. “Now I was talking to all these guys in the school and I was part of this brotherhood. Everyone was fighting toward this goal and I really enjoyed the whole team aspect. There’s so many valuable lessons that sport can teach. I loved all those things, so that’s what kept me coming back — even though I sucked.” That appraisal would change, thanks to his dedication. “By Grade 10, I absolutely fell in love with football,” Hus continues. “That’s when I started playing linebacker and started getting a little better and a little bigger. “My desire and my fuel for the game and my fire were just ignited that year. I had something missing in my life until that point. When I was introduced to football, it hit me like, ‘This is it. This is something that I’ve been waiting for.’ “It has been the same ever since. I’m still chasing after it.” While Hus was at St. Joseph, a coach had invaluable advice to impart: “Long snapping can take you a long way in football.” That message was reinforced when Hus joined the Prairie Football Conference’s Saskatoon Hilltops. “I narrowed down my vision and just focused on (long snapping) and that became the only important thing in my life,” Hus says. “I worked tirelessly at it all the time. I cut everything out of my life that could be an issue or an obstacle. I was able to focus on it that way and it was able to work out.” It worked out perfectly for Hus when he was exploring university football options. His close friend, Saskatoon-born Chris Bodnar, had been recruited as the University of Regina Rams’ punter and placekicker, and it just so happened that the Canada West football team needed a long snapper. Frank Mccrystal, the Rams’ head coach at the time, placed a call to Saskatoon. Beginning in 2010, Hus spent three seasons with the Rams, playing linebacker and spending time on kick-coverage teams in addition to long snapping. The Edmonton Eskimos took notice, selecting Hus in the fourth round (31st overall) of the 2013 CFL draft. Around the same time, though, the NFL’S Rams indicated an interest and invited him to camp. That summer, Hus played in the first of six NFL pre-season games in which he would participate over a two-year span. “The highlight, for sure, was playing in Denver in 2013, versus Peyton Manning,” Hus says. “That was the coolest experience ever. “I grew up a diehard Indianapolis Colts fan. I went to a Colts game when I was 18, by myself. I was going to go with a buddy, but he bailed out at the last minute. I said, ‘I’m still going to go. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.’ I went to Indy and had a blast. “When I got to play against Peyton in Denver, it was such a surreal moment. I remember warming up near the 50-yard line. I turned around and Peyton was facing the other way, throwing. It was a ‘what the hell’s going on?’ moment. “I don’t think I sat down once that entire game. I was on the sideline watching like a fan the whole game. Words don’t really describe how you feel.” The feeling of excitement was also noted in May of 2015, when the Eskimos — who had retained Hus’s CFL rights after drafting him — traded him to Saskatchewan. Over time, football has been joined on the priority list by an off-field vocation — Hus is a mortgage broker — and his recent engagement to Kenzi Kleiter. The wedding has been set for Jan. 2.
Ideally, Hus will have played a sixth CFL season by then — COVID-19 has created some uncertainty — while appreciating the privilege of playing in his home province. “I don’t know if there’s anyone who would disagree that Saskatchewan is the pinnacle of the league,” the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Hus says. “Everybody, I feel, wants to play or coach in Saskatchewan at some point in their career. “With the fans that we have and the energy in this province, it’s second to none. Being from here, you’ve felt it and you’ve lived it. When you get to go and play, it’s got a whole other meaning to it when you run out of the tunnel and you look up and see people who you’ve known your whole life. You all feel like you’re on the same team. “It feels like the roster is a million people. It’s not just us down there on the field.”