Saturday’s Touchdown Atlantic will go down in the books as a road game for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but for kicker Brett Lauther, it will feel more like a home game.
The Truro, Nova Scotia product will play in his home province for the second straight year when the Roughriders square off with the Argonauts.
Even with the Canadian Football League (CFL) taking centre stage this week, the biggest news in Nova Scotia has been the floodings that have claimed the lives of at least two children and a 52-year-old man.
Lauther will be playing with a heavy heart this weekend.
“I’m excited to go home and see family and friends, but your mind is a little bit elsewhere with everything that’s going on.”
He’s hoping that Touchdown Atlantic can provide a positive moment.
“Hopefully for the people that need it, maybe it can take their minds off things, maybe it’s something fun in Halifax can kind of turn things around.”
Saturday will offer the former St. Mary’s Huskie a chance to return to his old stomping grounds with Touchdown Atlantic at Huskies Stadium. Last season, the neutral site game in Wolfville at Raymond Field, where the Acadia Axemen play.
Entering his fifth season kicking with the Roughriders, Lauther has started the year 13/17 and 9/10 on converts. He has been battling a leg injury that has forced him to miss some time at practice but believes his health has improved.
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks not being around the guys.”
On Tuesday, the 32-year-old was at practice to start the week, a sign that his leg is trending in the right direction.
“When you’re inside and try to get better, you don’t feel apart of the team out here.”
Lauther also noted missing practice time was worse than he expected.
The Roughriders kicker doesn’t believe the injury has factored into his ability to kick a long-field goal.
“I think even in the past, I always want to go and kick a lot more than we do, at the end of the day it’s on me, I haven’t made one from past 50 yards this year, I have to take responsibility for that.”
Possible talks of the CFL expanding a tenth team to the Maritimes have circulated for several years, but not much action has resulted from the discussion. The lack of progress has left Lauther frustrated.
“A few years ago when we were doing I thought I had a pretty good read and it was going to happen and at this point now, don’t know too much, obviously it’s kind of a broken record, you think it’s going to happen, you think it’s going to happen, so it hasn’t.”
Lauther suggested the idea of retrofitting Huskies Stadium for a couple of seasons.
As expected with a rare CFL game in Nova Scotia, Lauther will have plenty of support in the stands.
“Everyone had a blast last year and wants to come back.”
The Roughriders kicker expects around a couple of hundred fans to be in the stands at Huskies Stadium on Saturday.
Practice Notebook
- Right tackle Colin Kelly (foot) didn’t practice on Wednesday.
- A pair of receivers returned to practice, Tevin Jones (illness) and Kendall Watson (ribs) were back after missing Tuesday. Mitch Picton (head) remained sidelined on Wednesday.
- Not practicing on Wednesday, offensive lineman Zack Fry (lower back), safety Jaxon Ford (ankle), defensive back Rodney Clemons (ankle),
- It remains to be seen if newly acquired defensive back Trumaine Washington will make his debut with Saskatchewan this week, Washington spent time working with the first-team defence.
- The Roughriders will depart for Halifax on Thursday following their practice, and arrive in the evening. The green and white will hold a walkthrough practice in Halifax on Friday.
Full coverage of Saturday’s Touchdown Atlantic will begin with Countdown to Kickoff at 11:00, Rider Nation Pre-Game Show at 1:00 and the opening kickoff with Michael Ball and Luc Mullinder is set for 2:00.
