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Player Diary Tom Cumberbatch joins the Gaiters this season after a stellar High School career at Colonel By High School in Ottawa. Cumberbatch was an AIA All-Star, a two year coach’s choice award winner and a school team spirit award winner. The bruising fullback is one of a talented freshmen class and will be a name to remember in the coming years. Tom Cumberbatch Player Diary
The football season is
back in gear. Head cracking time has finally begun. After a six month
recuperation period I am now expected to return to this game that I love
so dearly. In the past few years, football has been my inspiration to
succeed academically and has propelled me to work that much harder.
With the beginning of a new season comes new challenges and this year is a bigger challenge than ever. In my last three years of high school football, I was the big man, the captain, the all-star. I am now the rookie, the newcomer, the pawn. Playing university football has been exhilarating so far. I have learned more about the game in two weeks than I have in the four years that I have been playing football. It was our head coach Larry Legault who introduced me to Bishop’s University and its football program I come to Bishop’s because he gave me a genuine feel as to what the school could offer. So far it has been almost exact. Football on the other hand has been challenging. Adjusting to the bigger, faster layers has been a true learning experience for me. The playbook and the new techniques that the coaching staff have begun to teach me is a giant step up from the elementary coaching that I have received in the past. Training camp was both grueling and inexplicably amusing. Football is a discipline, this factor rang true during one time in training camp. Each day in training camp we had to sign in at training camp during our meals. One day after practice Larry pulled me and Brandon Adams aside alongside a couple of veterans. I was nervous, I didn’t know if it was going to be optimistic or pessimistic. I just wasn’t sure. Larry informed the group that we had forgotten to sign in at the previous night’s dinner. The consequence meant we would have to run something we refer to as “the big three.” It’s a one hundred meter sprint forward, one hundred meter sprint backwards and then a one hundred meter crab walk. Personally I though the sprints were easy, but then came what could be described as the most grueling drill I have ever experienced in all my years of football. At the midway point of the crab walk, my arms were trembling, my abdominals were burning. It was intense. This experience was a vital lesson that needed to be taught, being able to follow small details enables you to master the understanding and the execution of bigger details. This notion applies directly to football due to the fact that detail plays one of the most important roles in knowing and executing assignments on the field. Football can be painfully oxymoronic at times and that is what makes this game so special. The tradition at Bishop’s has made me proud to be a Gaiter and has influenced me to set high standards for my conduct on and off the field. Adapting to my new academic environment has been comfortable for me, knowing that the upperclassmen on our team are enthusiastic about helping freshmen has made transition that much easier. Despite our shortcomings in the last few years, I know that in my four years here, I will compete in a national title game. Go Gaiters.
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