Attending the Gray Cup game isn’t that easy. Ask Nick and Antonietta Zema.
The parents of Montreal Alouettes Australian kicker Joseph Zema were scheduled to arrive Thursday from Melbourne, after making stopovers in Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto.
“It’s a long journey. But I can’t wait to see them,” said Zema, whose wife and son are also due to arrive Saturday from Texas.
Zema’s path to the CFL was even more winding than his parents’. The former Australian rules football player, who reached the semi-professional ranks, became interested in North America and its many versions of football before joining ProKick Australia, a program for aspiring players. kickers who want to find a niche in the college ranks.
“I was trying to find another outlet,” Zema said. I was too old to be drafted (by the Australian Football League), so I turned to “ProKick Australia”, which pointed me in the right direction. »
He was at a crossroads, having completed his degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.
“I had a choice between going through the ProKick Australia process and learning how to kick a football, or retiring and getting a job in an office,” he recalled. I am very happy with the decision I made. »
He then joined the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. The school, which operates within the Southland Association, was founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who initially established themselves in Texas to combat a cholera epidemic.
In his only year of eligibility, in 2017, Zema acted as a kicker for the school team.
“It’s been a whirlwind, to be quite honest,” he said. I knew I was going there in July, and I think around August 4th or 5th, if I’m not mistaken, I arrived in San Antonio and just two weeks later I was playing in front of 40 000 spectators at Fresno State University stadium.
Zema attracted interest from his first kicks, even making a 75-yard punt. He finished the season averaging 46.7 yards per punt, and 31 of his 77 attempts went 50 yards or more.
He was therefore named to the Southland Association all-star team, after pushing the opposing team inside his line 20 to 20 times.
“It was a great experience, and it changed my life, to be honest. And for the better,” he continued about his academic career.
After college, he attended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets mini-training camps in 2018, before getting a tryout with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2019, he played for the San Antonio Commanders, in the now defunct ‘Alliance of American Football’.
Zema was eventually selected seventh overall in the 2021 CFL International Draft, becoming one of four Australian kickers to go in the first round.
The Calgary Stampeders (Cody Grace), Saskatchewan Roughriders (Adam Korsak), Toronto Argonauts (John Haggerty) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Jamieson Sheahan) also have an Australian kicker in their ranks.
“I think they have more than one trick up their sleeve,” Blue Bombers special teams coach Paul Boudreau said of the effects Australian kickers can put on the flight of the ball.
Zema, who is 29 years old, has taken up residence with the Birds, and he takes the metro regularly.
“It reminds me a bit of Melbourne, with all these restaurants and cafes… It’s nice to be able to spend six months here working,” he said. We don’t feel like we have to work. I really fell in love with Montreal. »
He lives in Texas during the off season. It was there that he met his wife, Ariana, six years ago. A teacher, who spends June and July with Zema in Montreal.
The rest of the season, their relationship is a long distance one.
Zema, in his third season with the Alouettes, and precision kicker David Côté provide the Alouettes with a formidable tandem. Zema also imprisoned the Argonauts deep in their territory for most of the Eastern final on November 10.