Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
You could say Hugo Lopez had home field advantage this past weekend at the CFL Evaluation Camp presented by Reebok.
The event was held at the Varsity Centre, after all, where he plays defensive back for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. He has his own stall in the change room, the crew knows him and he could show you every nook and cranny of the university’s new $92 million dollar stadium.
“It’s nice to be familiar with the turf. I’m used to the lighting and the atmosphere,” Lopez said under the cavernous bubble erected over the field to keep out the wicked winds and snow of winter. “But when I’m out there, it doesn’t feel like home turf.”
That’s right — there was no edge to be had this weekend, because for the nomadic Lopez, home is a much more relative term.
Although the Spanish and business major is listed as being from Newmarket, Ontario, he was actually born in Leon, Nicaragua 23 years ago. But the tumultuous political climate in the Central American country chased the Lopez’s to Costa Rica for a short time and then to Naples, Florida, where Hugo spent most of his youth and eventually discovered football during high school.
But it wasn’t long before Lopez and company were on the move once again, heading north to Canada where they landed in North York, the northernmost borough of the city of Toronto.
Lopez didn’t even have time to put his luggage away before he was hitting the road yet again, travelling to Waterloo in 2007 where he spent his next three years studying at the University of Waterloo and playing football for the Warriors.
During that time, Lopez’s parents went through a painful divorce, which forced his father and 10-year-old sister Gabriella to move further north to Newmarket where they have finally settled.
And just when it seemed like things couldn’t get any more unstable for Lopez, university officials suspended the Warriors football program for the 2010 season after the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport blew the lid off of a steroid scandal.
“It was a terrible situation because my teammates and coaches at Waterloo were amazing,” Lopez said. “I really thought the team was on the rise and we were heading for the playoffs.”
It must have felt like life was telling Lopez to just give up on football.
But if there’s one thing to know about the athletic defensive back with a nose for the ball, it’s that he doesn’t give up on things easily. And while most still thought of the University of Toronto as a moribund football team, Lopez took one look at the school and saw opportunity.
Going to Toronto meant he could live at home and be with his father and sister, even if it meant a long daily commute from Newmarket to downtown Toronto.
And it meant Lopez could be part of a resurgent movement with the Varsity Blues, who this year won three games — two if you don’t include a Laurier forfeit due to eligibility issues — and knocked off the first place Ottawa Gee Gees in the regular season.
To add to that, three of the Blues’ losses came by 12 points or less. It was easily the best season the program has had since the turn of the century.
“The money the school is putting into the program now is great and the team is on the rise because of it,” Lopez said. “We beat Ottawa and we gave most teams we played a run for their money.”
Now, after an impressive weekend at E-Camp, Lopez could once again be on the move depending on whether his name is called at the 2011 CFL Entry Draft on May 8.
But at least this time Lopez will be ready for it. And to his credit, the tallest defensive back at E-Camp said his nomadic lifestyle has made him a better person.
“The main thing was adaptation. It’s hard leaving friends. But going from school to school you just learn how to adapt to an atmosphere and deal with what you have,” Lopez said. “I’ve learned how to adapt to any situation. I don’t take anything for granted because one day it might be gone.”
Basically living a military-lifestyle without the uniform since he was a young boy, it would have been understandable had football fallen by the wayside in the chaos of Lopez’s constant relocation.
But bouncing around the continent has only seemed to better Lopez on the football field. Some players may have had an adjustment period after leaving one school for another, but not Lopez who put up his best numbers to date last year with Toronto notching 23.5 tackles, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble and an interception in eight games.
Lopez never had much of a choice in leaving Waterloo. The team wouldn’t be taking the field in official competition in 2010 — although those that stayed with the team did scrimmage with several OUA B squads — and Lopez was in his draft year.
It was not the time to stay stagnant.
“It was horrible. Losing all of my teammates and my coaches,” Lopez said. “But things happen in life. I have to see it as a good thing because I got noticed in Toronto and got an invite to the Evaluation Camp. Now I’m here.”
And it was here that Lopez wrote the first words of the latest chapter in his passport-stamp-filled book of life.
Lopez shined in the explosive tests, finishing third in the broad jump with 10’5’’, fourth in the shuttle with a time of 4.10 seconds and fifth in the vertical jump, sailing 40’’ on the nose.
Meanwhile, his 40 time of 4.65 was fourth best among defensive backs and tied for eighth overall among all E-Camp participants. And even his 13 bench press repetitions landed him in fourth place among the defensive backs, not especially known for their strength.
“The numbers were there. I’m definitely happy with those,” said Lopez, who interviewed with four teams over the weekend. “The one-on-ones were a little disappointing for me but now I know what I have to work on and if I get to a CFL camp I’ll be on top of it.”
For now, that’s the big ‘if’ for Lopez. But considering his performance on the weekend, a trip to a CFL training camp is a very real possibility in the near future.
And this time, Lopez won’t mind the move.
