Former Canadian Football League (CFL) wide receiver Youssy Pierre was recently hired as the new wide receiver coach for the Carleton Ravens men’s football team.
Pierre was born in Montreal on August 8, 1985. After a three-year college career with the University of Montreal Carabins, Pierre realized his dream of playing professionally could come true.
“I was a decent player,” Pierre said. “But during my last year of college, that is when I realized that I could make the pros.”
Pierre’s Carabins coach recommended that he train for the U Sports East-West Bowl, a Canadian university football all-star game that showcases the top U Sports football prospects in the country. The East-West Bowl is where Pierre met current Ravens men’s football head coach, Steve Sumarah.
After that, Duane Ford, a former CFL player and broadcaster for TSN, messaged Pierre on Facebook.
“He told me that he got me an invitation to the East-West Bowl in Toronto. At the same time, he told me that they would choose only two guys—and we were about 200 players—for a CFL camp,” Pierre said.
“As I was leaving the camp with another Montreal player and while I was on the highway, I received a call from one of the CFL’s scouting officials and he told me to turn around,” he said. “‘You’ve been invited to the CFL camp,’ which took place the same weekend as the East-West Bowl.”
From there, everything changes for Pierre and his CFL career took off. When Pierre was drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos in 2011, all his hard work had finally paid off.
“Just seeing the reaction from my mom and dad and knowing that it was so hard and that I trained like crazy. So just receiving that phone call, it was something special,” Pierre said.
After getting drafted, he said he could not wait to meet his teammates and the coaches, and to start his career. But most importantly, he said he was thankful for the opportunity.
“I am so thankful, it was an experience I will never forget. I was so lucky that I was playing with future Hall of Fame QB Ricky Ray, with receivers that were at the peak of their career like Adarius Bowman and that I was coached by one of the greats, Derrell Mitchell,” Pierre said.
Once Pierre got to Edmonton, he was ready to do everything he could to improve his game.
“I really wanted to understand every single meeting that we had, I took nothing for granted, my ears and eyes were always wide open,” Pierre said.
He said the best moment in his CFL career was scoring a touchdown on his first catch.
“After I scored the touchdown, I came back to the bench and a veteran cornerback came to me and whispered in my ear, ‘Youssy, you just made the team’ … I was so happy,” Pierre said.
After a three-year CFL career, Pierre is now in his first year of coaching with the Ravens men’s football team, but already has gained plenty of experience coaching. He added that he was already coaching while playing in the CFL.
“In the off-seasons, I helped coach a local high school team called Empereurs of Letendre College, based in Laval and at a few other high schools and CEGEPs,” he said.
Coaching has always been an interest of Pierre’s and he said he intends to continue coaching as his career progresses.
“I will be graduating from teacher’s college in April and I think teaching and coaching go together. They are both things that I love to do,” Pierre said.
When Pierre was hired by the Ravens, he already knew some of the coaches from when he was playing university football. Pierre said all the players and the entire coaching staff welcomed him with open arms, making his transition to being a university team coach easy.
Sumarah said Pierre’s role this year has been “calling recruits (and) jumping on Zoom calls,” along with learning about the team’s offense and getting to know the coaches and players.
Despite not having a normal season with games and in-person practices with the whole team because of COVID-19, Pierre said having team meetings online is nothing new.
He said many team meetings were held online when he coached the Cégep Chicoutimi Couguars, because many players lived out of town.
“(But) next January when he moves to the Ottawa area, he’ll be able to come join us for practices that we have, as long as the COVID-19 situation allows us to practice in January,” Sumarah said.
Provincial safety measures mean for many teams that in-person practices are not an option. The Carleton Ravens were fortunate that Ottawa still allowed parts of the team to practice at different times, with Covid safety restrictions in place.
Given the challenges of this season, Sumarah said Pierre has done very well in his first season with the team, despite the challenges of online communication and the fact that Pierre is attending teachers college in Chicoutimi, while the team practices in Ottawa.
“So it’s not like he can walk in the locker room and say hi to the guys,” Sumarah said. “It’s very challenging and for him to just be able to jump in and do what he’s doing, is pretty impressive.”
After he graduates from teachers college in April, Pierre hopes to move to Ottawa and someday work in education.
Featured image by Tim Austen.
