Kitchener native makes instant impact for Mustangs
Posted Oct 1, 2011 07:25:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
His name is Tyler Varga. For those of you who haven’t heard of him yet – you will. Even if you don’t follow football. The fact is, he’s kind of a big deal.
He started playing football at 8 years old. Back then it was flag football where to make a stop – you just grabbed the player’s flag. Now as a member of the Western Mustangs his opponents have to tackle him.
All 5′ 10″ and 218 pounds of him. Oh yeah and he’s just a teenager.
Despite the fact that he just turned 18, he’s been on the radar of big-time U-S college programs for a few years now. However – when push came to shove, the Kitchener native decided that Canada was where he wanted to stay.
Why?
Well, for a couple of reasons. On the one hand, he wanted to play football with a great program and a great team. On the other hand, his decision was as much about football as it was about an education.
He liked the quality of the education he knew he would get by attending the University of Western Ontario – so despite scholarship offers in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the aforementioned U-S schools he stayed.
Boy did Western benefit. So far they are 4-0 to start the year (2-0 both at home and on the road) and they have scored 209 points while giving up just 84.
As for Varga, in just 4 games he’s rushed for 462 yards. While that’s a great number, it’s not the highest in the league so far.
The number that is astonishing is the number of rushing touchdowns. He has 12 TD’s in 4 games and with just 4 games remaining on the schedule – he’s currently on pace to break the CIS record for rushing touchdowns in a season of 21 by Paul Brule of St. FX back in 1967 and equalled by Jesse Lumsden of McMaster in 2004.
And that’s not the only record he has a shot at. Also poised to fall is the record for all-purpose touchdowns in a season which is 25 – also set by Brule in ’67.
Today – Varga and the Mustangs, who are the 2nd ranked team in the country, look to improve to 5-0 with a home date against York (1-3).
Chances are pretty good Tyler will reach paydirt a few more times today and get closer to that record. Perhaps more importantly, with each passing day – he gets closer to his degree as well.
Today’s game is a 1:00pm start at TD Waterhouse Stadium in London.
