Mitch Calvert
A fire for football continues to burn inside Fort Frances native Kevin Tysz.
The spark started in Grade 7 while playing for the Muskie ‘C’ team and culminated this year with a roster spot on the University of Manitoba Bisons.
“I’ve known I’ve always wanted to play football and I just wanted to continue to play wherever I could,” the 22-year-old said.
Tysz has been busy trying to learn the playbook so he eventually can work into a linebacking corps deep with experienced personnel, including 39-year-old Kurt Kux and 27-year-old Jim Jeavons.
“There’s some guys who have been around for a while. The guy helping me here is in his sixth year so he knows the playbook pretty well,” Tysz laughed.
“We have a fair bit of returners on the defensive side and the offensive line is the same from last year,” he noted.
“A lot of the time has been focused on learning the playbook,” Tysz added. “I’ve gotten some special teams’ time, not a whole lot, but it’s about what I expected.”
The Bisons got off to a rough start with back-to-back losses to Regina (28-10) and Simon Fraser (41-7), but rebounded with a convincing 36-10 win over the University of British Columbia in their annual Homecoming game on Saturday.
The squad next will clash with the University of Alberta on Oct. 3.
“[We’re] on a bye week right now and then we play Alberta, and they are supposed to be a strong team so we have a lot of preparation to do before then,” Tysz stressed.
“But as long as you focus on the little stuff and get that right, then you should be okay.”
Tysz played four seasons with the Muskies’ senior squad as a lineman on both defence and offence, earning the Marc DeGagne Award for Outstanding Contribution in his senior year in 2004.
He then spent a year with the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs over in International Falls (the football program there no longer exists).
“After high school was over, I went to play across the river when the team was still there and I was too small for [the] line,” Tysz explained.
“But I was the right size for linebacker, so they [RRCC] wanted to try me out for linebacker and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
After taking a one-year hiatus from the sport following his stint at RRCC, Tysz returned to the gridiron in 2006 in Winnipeg with the St. Vital Mustangs, who are members of the Manitoba Major Football League.
Tysz showed little rust in a campaign that saw him nab the team’s rookie-of-the-year award.
Following that season, Tysz cracked the lineup of the Winnipeg Rifles as a middle linebacker and spent the past two seasons playing with that team in the Canadian Junior Football League.
Football runs deep for Tysz as his dad, Rob, played his full collegiate career for the Bisons before going on to a brief stint in the CFL and NFL.
“My dad has always been influential. He coached [the Muskies] when I was there and it was always good to have a coach at home,” Tysz laughed.
“He would always help with extra stuff that not all the other guys got.
“Him and ‘Swinger’ [Bob Swing] were always there along the way, but all the coaches there had helpful advice,” Tysz said of the Muskie program.
“Both my uncles played [Patrick and Terry], too, so it’s definitely in the family.”
Tysz plans to major in engineering at the U of M.
