Tyler Varga at Yale with parents John & Hannele  (photo courtesy the Varga family)

 

During our lengthy telephone conversation from Calgary last week, I asked Tyler Varga to do a self-evaluation.

 

"What were your greatest strengths?" I asked.  "What qualities or characteristics made you into such an elite football player?"

 

His first reply was similar to the one I had in my head for him* but I liked his answer better.

 

"Grit" is what he started with.

 

He then went on to explain his definition of the word.

 

"Grit is a determined approach to achieving goals and saying no to distractions."

 

Before saying another word, the teacher in me was already giving Varga, an outstanding student throughout his entire academic career, an A+ for his reply.

 

Because if you know anything at all about Tyler Varga - the legendary Cameron Heights/Cambridge Lions, etc. football star; the CIS freshman of the year during his one season with the Western Mustangs; the three-time All-Ivy League dynamo at Yale; the running back from the 519 who made it to the National Football League - then you know that he's a guy who stubbornly, steadfastly and stoically refuses to let outside factors get in the way of achieving his stated goals.

 

"Grit" was the perfect first response.

 

"I have to give my coach from when I was with the Colts, Chuck Pagano**, credit for that definition," Varga explained while taking a break from studying for his next-level exam as an investment analyst…from his office…buried in books…on a Saturday…after putting in a 60+ hour work week.

 

As someone who witnessed Varga compete in person, on television and online since he was in Grade 9, I thought his other answers also made perfect sense:

 

- "willpower" ("I have a very strong ability to be able to say no to distractions")

 

- "preparedness" ("This is something my parents instilled in me from an early age. No matter what the task - a football game, a test, these charter exams I'm studying for right now - I'm pretty intense about the preparation part of it.")

 

- "competitiveness" ("It's somewhat of a cliché for people to say but I really am competitive. I'd even say super-competitive. Someone here at work just signed us up for a inter-corporate fitness challenge . So, being me, I immediately drew up a 60-day training program for our little team of five. I told them 'we have to crush these guys'. ")

 

Not knowing Varga personally all these years but knowing and hearing a great deal about him, both athletically and intellectually, I didn't expect to be any more impressed by him at the end of a 90-minute telephone conversation than I already was.

 

I was wrong.

 

(* - mine was "toughness".)

(** - currently the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, Pagano, a big time fan of motivational quotes, was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in 2012 and had to step away from his role as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He's been cancer-free for over six years now.)

 

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Still teaching and coaching at CHCI, Johnny Forte is not surprised by anything he ever hears about Tyler Varga's mental approach to things in or outside of football.

 

"Tyler's work ethic is far above most if not all I've ever coached before," says Forte.

 "He was the first one on the field and the last one off the field and I would be hard pressed to think of one day that he missed practice."

 

"His attention to detail but also his ability to help others improve is what made the teams he played on here at Cameron successful."

 

The Golden Gaels won the WCSSAA championship in Varga's grade ten year.

 

I asked Forte if there was a specific moment when he realized just how good Varga could potentially be.

 

"There were glimmers of it in grade nine but the one that stands out for me is from his grade 10 year."

 

"We were working on a pitch drill and the linebackers were to mirror the running backs and then go make the tackle.  Most of Tyler's turns resulted in the linebacker not catching up to him but this one time the linebacker left early to get a jump on Tyler."

 

"As this player goes to make the tackle, Tyler hurdles him and continues on to score."

 

"All of us watching, coaches included, started hooting and hollering. That was the first time I knew definitively that we were in the midst of someone extraordinary."  

 

Varga's senior coach, Kevin Bell, is also still at the school.

 

"I knew he was a special player because even in senior practices, it took 3 or 4 guys just to bring him down," Bell recalls with a smile.

 

"Tyler's first senior game was against a very good team who we had been struggling with in recent times. He  scored three touchdowns and we won comfortably."

 

But for Bell, there were things about Varga that impressed him even more than his on field prowess.

 

"I also taught Tyler in grade 11 and 12 IB chemistry. Not only was he a great student who achieved high marks, he fit in with all the students at CHCI - the athletes and the scholars."

 

"He had absolutely no ego. You would never know that he was one of the best football players in Canada when he was in your class or out on the field."

 

"Do you know how refreshing it is to have your star player be the hardest worker on the team? A guy who never missed a practice and always played through injuries?

 

"Often stars in high school and even the NFL have to be coddled and treated differently than other players. Tyler was the ultimate team player who made coaching his team very enjoyable and easy to do."

 

Related to his intellectual abilities, Forte was equally impressed by Varga's cerebral side.

 

"He had a brain for football. He knew the game and was always eager to learn from everyone and anyone."

 

"His vision was key - he was able to see the entire field and think two steps ahead.  He knew what his options were before the play and then reacted to what the other players did."

 

Having said that, Forte is not minimizing the physical gifts Varga was also blessed with.

 

"His combination of speed and strength was exceptional. If he didn't outrun you, he ran over you."

 

"And he was fearless. There wasn't a player in the league he was afraid to go head-to-head against."

 

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It's hard to say which of Varga's many accomplishments during his time at Yale is most impressive.

 

In 2012, he played quarterback, running back and returned kicks and led the NCAA's second tier division with 194.2 all-purpose yards per game. That included setting a Yale single-game rushing record for QBs with 220 yards in a game at Columbia.

 

He led the league in rushing that year with 116.9 yards per game, averaged 23.6 yards on his kick returns and led the Bulldogs with 54 points. Not a bad start for a kid from Cameron Heights enrolled in pre-med at an Ivy league school (evolutionary biology) who's also able to speak three languages.

 

Wait…what?

 

You think I'm making some of this stuff up?

 

Trust me, I'm not.

 

Despite only playing at Yale for three years, Varga ranks 4th all-time at the school with 2,985 yards. He sits third all-time in rushing touchdowns with 31 and finished with a second-best-ever yards per carry average of 5.6.

 

He was awarded the Bushnell Cup in his senior year as the Ivy League's Player of the Year and followed that up by leading the North squad to a 34-13 victory in the post-season Senior Bowl.

 

After watching Varga's performance that night and his workouts all week, Josh Norris, an NFL analyst for NBC Sports Rotoworld, described him as "a destroyer of worlds."

 

He ran for 31 yards and two touchdowns on only four carries, made several key blocks in pass protection (can you tell I was watching that game?) and caught four passes for another 39 yards.

 

Larry Ciotti (a.k.a. "Larry the Legend") was Varga's running back coach at Yale. He's a high school coaching legend in the state of Connecticut where he won 5 state titles and amassed a won-loss-tie record of 141-41-2. No surprise, he is a member of the Connecticut High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame.

 

Ciotti had actually retired from coaching the RB's at Yale when new head coach Tony Reno coaxed him into returning in an effort to resurrect a then struggling football program. Part of the allure of making a return for Ciotti was watching video of a certain prospect from Canada who was considering a transfer from UWO.

 

"After viewing the video, I had a strong sense that this player could lead Yale back to football prominence," recalls Ciotti.

 

"Coach Reno invited him to an official recruiting visit. I then met with him and his dad in my office and right then and there, I had a feeling that God had dropped this outstanding athlete in my lap to launch me into my coaching return."

 

"He was very strong, very agile and very flexible with speed uncanny for a 220 pound running back. He had the ability to make tacklers miss and to gain yards after contact."

 

"But for me, what stood out most about Tyler was his vision, his dedication to the team and his desire to embrace his role as a leader on the team."

 

I asked Ciotti what he would want people to know about Varga.

 

"I want people to know that Tyler was a tremendous competitor with exceptional ability who never wasted a minute to learn and develop into a better player."

 

"Better still, Tyler is a 'giver'. He always put others ahead of himself on the football field and did the same on campus as a stellar Yale student."

 

"People love Tyler Varga at Yale. He has etched his name in the 'sands of time'.

 

 

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To say that Tyler Varga comes from good athletic stock is a bit of an understatement.

 

His mother Hannele, who emigrated from Finland, has competed as a Masters class downhill skier, was a member of the Swedish national rugby team for a time and, like her husband John, has been a high-end competitive body builder.

 

John came to Canada from Croatia, was once named Mr. Eastern Canada and was a star quarterback locally for the Eastwood Rebels.

 

"Both of my parents came to Canada from Europe with very little and became very hard workers. That work ethic was definitely passed on to me," says Varga.

 

"Despite being an only child, my parents always, always emphasized and instilled in me team concepts."

 

"I'm grateful for the physical genetics but they also taught me a lot about nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle. And the discipline needed to follow all that through."

 

I asked Varga's father what he and his wife are most proud of about their son.

 

"You could always say that it is the wall of accolades he has accumulated but honestly that's not it," says John.

 

"It's how those accolades came to be - the countless hours he spent outside the limelight training and dieting; the sacrificing of things that others enjoy daily; the dedication required to achieve anything athletically."

 

"Academically, he has always been a dedicated student but what he has been doing since graduating from Yale (and deciding not to pursue medicine) is most impressive."

 

"After embarking on a career in finance, he has taken it upon himself (self taught) to get his CFA designation. This is a three year process with three global exams."

 

"The background academics required would be a combination of finance/economics/accounting/commerce etc. and about 2,000 hours of study time."

 

"Sixty percent of the people that write these exams fail despite having the required background. Even as a biology major, he has written the first two and scored well on both."

 

I also asked him if there was a point in time when, as parents, they thought their son could go quite far with his football career.

 

"The NFL thing was never in the plans," insists John. "That just kind of happened after he had an outstanding senior season and was the standout player at the Senior Bowl. Otherwise the plan was to go to medical school. The academic path was always the focus."

 

"He started various kinds of training and sports starting from about two years old so he was physically and mentally more advanced than most kids at any level he played at, even the kids that were older."

 

"He just didn’t love the other sports like he loved football."

 

"Our family is very competitive - we can’t even have a game of Monopoly without high intensity. Looking back, every parent thinks that their kid is the greatest , especially if they train him/her."

 

"Tyler was very good at a lot of sports but our focus was never anything other than possibly college level and with that, access to a top level academic school via sports."

 

"Pro sports is an accidental bonus and if you are hanging your hat on that, you are likely to be disappointed."

 

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The life and times of Tyler Varga has been anything but disappointing.

 

By all accounts - athletically, academically, socially and now professionally - they have been exceptional.

 

Not many academics can change disciplines from a science-based focus to one related to high end finance and enjoy this kind of success.

 

Not many ball players can say they made it to the National Football League - even for one season - and say they caught the opening kick-off on Monday Night Football.

 

And not many people can achieve all this success and still be as humble, as gracious and as appreciative of others (friends, teammates, coaches, parents, teachers, etc.) as Varga is.

 

I began my interview (and this piece) by asking Varga to do some self-reflection about his strengths - but I saved one of his answers to end with.

 

It had to do with passion.

 

"I care", he said. "I don't do things that I don't care about."

 

Not a typical answer like "grit" or "willpower" or "competitiveness".

 

Then again, there's never been anything typical about Tyler Varga.