Waters’ understudy gets baptism by fire
Laurier grad Pfeffer takes over kicking duties for Argos starting Sunday
This will be a baptism by fire for 23-year-old Argonaut kicker Ronnie Pfeffer.
Out of Laurier University and into the sweltering heat at Mosaic Stadium in Regina.
That’s some CFL debut for him on Sunday.
“Toronto took a chance with me and I just want to showcase myself and show them what I’m made of,” Pfeffer said in a phone interview on Friday before the team flew out to face the Roughriders.
The game will match one of the youngest kickers in the league against the oldest in 45-year-old Paul McCallum, who was picked up for a second tour of duty with the Roughriders after the B.C. Lions let him go in training camp.
Pfeffer was born June 17, 1992, and was just a baby when McCallum started his CFL career in 1993.
“With Paul McCallum being there, it’s great,” Pfeffer said. “I’ve been watching the CFL since I was a kid and being able to watch Paul McCallum and all these guys to be able to play at this level is just, well, I’ve got to capitalize on everything I’m doing.”
McCallum told reporters in Regina on Friday he doesn’t know much about Pfeffer and says age shouldn’t be a factor.
“It’s just a birth certificate,” McCallum said. “I don’t know anything about the kicker they have or how good he is or how many college games he’s played in.”
Pfeffer is an emergency replacement for Swayze Waters, the CFL’s special teams player of the year in 2014 suffered a hip flexor injury in the season-opening 26-11 victory last week against the Eskimos.
The Argos used 35-year-old Dave Stala as an emergency fill-in, but he wasn’t really up to the task. He missed an easy field goal and his punting average was only 35 yards.
With Waters gone from four to six weeks, this is Pfeffer’s time to shine; not many teams have shown faith in him. He was brought into the Ottawa Redblacks camp for a tryout but was not offered a contract and released.
Pfeffer wound up in Edmonton for another tryout. When that didn’t work out, he returned home to Kitchener, Ont., and continued to work hard hoping a call would come.
He was at home watching the Argos’ home opener when he saw Waters come up lame. Soon after, he was getting a call from his agent that the Argos wanted to offer him a tryout. “The team welcomed me with open arms,” Pfeffer said.
The best piece of advice from Waters: “Relax and be yourself. As long as you are yourself on the field, that’s all that matters.”
Pfeffer’s punting got better each year at Laurier. In his first year, he was ranked 27th in the country and by his fourth year, “with all the hard work, I got ranked No. 1” with a 42.3 yard average.
He attributed his improvement to hard work and help from his coaching staff at Laurier.
His field goal percentage, however, was up and down over his university career, going from a high of 80 per cent in 2011 to a low of 60 per cent in 2013.
In his final year at Laurier, Pfeffer set a career high and established a Laurier record with a 50-yard field goal. He was named a first team OUA all-star and second team all-Canadian.
At Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, Pfeffer was a soccer player and a defensive back in football. But the high school football coach needed a kicker, and both he and his father, Ron, knew Ronnie had a strong leg. So they turned him into a kicker. “It’s been a great experience and it’s led me to where I am now,” the newest Argonaut kicker said.