SFU football player faces ‘uncertain’ future after program cut

Ishmael Togi was going into his final year playing for Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) football team. But after SFU announced Tuesday it would be ending its varsity football program, he’s unsure what might come next.

SFU says the decision was made after its affiliate agreement with the NCAA’s Lone Star Conference was not renewed.

Twenty-year-old Togi tells CityNews the team had been practicing for a few weeks already, and players, coaches, and staff just found out about the program’s fate.

“This came out of nowhere, the understanding this whole time was we’re supposed to play. We’re supposed to play this 2023 season and then next year was when we’d go looking for a new conference. It really hurts our seniors the most, it just sucks to work that hard and come that far just for it all to be taken away so fast.”

Togi is an international student, originally from Seattle, and he says it’s “hard to see why” he should stick around with football no longer an option at the school.

He explains tuition for international students at SFU is significantly more expensive than it is for Canadians, so a lot of international students on the team had to take out student loans on top of their scholarships to attend the university.

“A lot of the other guys I’ve talked to, well, we don’t know what’s next. It’s probably going to take a week or two before we figure out what we’re going to do next with our lives,” Togi said. “Losing the football program, it really affects us, because a lot of us have sacrificed a lot just so that we can be able to afford to go to the school.”

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• SFU ends varsity football program

Togi says the timing of the announcement is an issue for players as well, as the ideal time to transfer is around January.

“With it being April and the season starting in a few months, August is going to come right around the corner,” he said.

“The harsh truth about it is, a lot of teams already have their roster set for the season, and its going to be hard to find a new home for the 70-plus guys we have over here that are now teamless.”

Through his time at the SFU, Togi says he and his fellow international students stuck around through border restrictions and other pandemic-related issues because of their “passion for the team” and commitment to the program.

“The only upside to me coming here, now, is gone,” he said. “A lot of people are really uncertain about the future and what’s next for us, a lot of us are just speechless right now.”