St. Joseph product Sam Lafreniere in midst of historic football season

The name Sam Lafreniere is one that’s starting to become quite common across Saskatoon’s high school football scene.

The Grade 11 student plays for the St. Joseph High School senior football team and has been tearing up the gridiron this fall.

650 CKOM’s Shane Clausing caught up with Lafreniere and head coach Chad Palmer on Behind the Headlines:

In his first season starting with the team, the young 17-year-old is averaging 244 yards on the ground in just four games – resulting in just under 1,000 yards total on the season. He’s been accompanied with seven touchdowns for his efforts.

The man who has a front row seat to watch Lafreniere play every week is his head coach Chad Palmer. He’s extremely impressed with what he’s seen out of his young running back this year.

“What makes any running back or player like him (special) is just an ability to see the field that you can’t coach. Like the things that Sam does other guys can’t do – he’s born with,” he explained. “He sees the field better than so many guys than you’d ever get. You get a guy like him once every 10 years – he just sees the field so well – combined with great speed. (It’s) an awesome combination to have, and a bad one to play against.”

So why has Lafreniere had so much success running the football at such a young age?

Lafreniere said for starters, he credits his offensive line, but also his experience playing the game.

He first started playing flag football at the age of six and eventually strapped on the football pads for the first time in Grade 6.

The early football experience as well as a background in track and field is what he credits for being able to have so much success in his young and promising football career.

“Being able to see the field from a younger age is always good and then track – my parents ran – I run – keeping up the speed and endurance there is (important),” Lafreniere said.

“Just trusting the hole, trusting my vision, trusting the speed and trusting the o-line that they will (do) the job,” he added.

According to Lafreniere, both his mom and dad were on the track and field team at the University of Saskatchewan. Lafreniere said his mom was actually offered a scholarship to the University of Oregon, but decided to turn it down for a reason he doesn’t know.

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Lafreniere’s game can be described as a running back who chooses to make the smart play as opposed to the risky one.

For coach Palmer, he admits for him it’s a little odd having a guy like Lafreniere who is this good at running the football.

“For us (coaches), it’s a little out of our comfort zone,” Palmer said.

“For myself as an offensive coach and my offensive coordinator, we’d probably be considered to be pass heavy coaches. To have a back like this puts us out of our comfort zone, but it sure is a luxury to be able to run the football. The colder it gets, it’s a big time luxury to have a guy like that you know you can give the ball to. Every time you hand the ball to a guy like Sam, you’re thinking this could go.”

The future for Lafreniere is very bright and only time will tell what the next move for him and his football journey will be.

He has a couple goals in mind that he wants to achieve.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the NFL,” he said. “I’ve always loved watching them play and I’d love to go to the states for football.”

Lafreniere said he’s a huge fan of the Seattle Seahawks, especially the Legion of Boom era which saw them when the Super Bowl in 2013.

“Marshawn Lynch and just the Legion of Boom. I just like the way that they run their program and I like the way that they look and way that they play,” he added.

His coach is confident that Lafreniere will have a successful future in football, he adds he just needs to keep growing in order to make that happen.

“One thing that Sam is limited on and Sam would tell you himself (what) he’s limited on right now is size,” Palmer said.

“But, being in Grade 11, he’s got lots of opportunity to grow, get bigger, but even without that, guys his size have great careers at that level, but that would be the only thing holding him back. Like I said, that will change for him and I anticipate him having a U Sports career for sure.”