{"id":364419,"date":"2025-12-23T20:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364419\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T20:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:02:18","slug":"logan-ferland-a-saskatchewan-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364419\/","title":{"rendered":"Logan Ferland: A Saskatchewan success story"},"content":{"rendered":"

SASKATOON \u2014\u00a0During a media gathering that was unavoidably about himself, Logan Ferland<\/a> made a point of shining the spotlight on others.<\/p>\n

Loved ones \u2026 teammates \u2026 coaches \u2026 anyone and everyone who has helped him become one of the CFL\u2019s elite offensive linemen.<\/p>\n

That status was oft-referenced on Tuesday, when Ferland and Saskatchewan Roughriders Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O\u2019Day met with reporters to discuss a contract extension<\/a> and, in the larger equation, a home-grown success story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe,\u201d Ferland reflected, \u201cespecially with the kind of journey it has been all the way back to the Kindersley days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or the Saskatoon days, to rewind a bit further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were living in Kindersley and I was a little premature, so we were rushed here to the NICU in Saskatoon,\u201d said Ferland, who was born in Royal University Hospital\u2019s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on April 14, 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really special city to me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferland, whose family moved from Kindersley to Melfort when he was 11, is spending the off-season in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n

His girlfriend, Telia Thiemann, resides in the Bridge City, where a reigning All-CFL guard works out at Ignite Athletics with a group of players that includes teammates Noah Zerr<\/a>, Jorgen Hus<\/a> and Nick Wiebe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hence the site of Tuesday\u2019s announcement, which took place at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another full-circle moment, because we actually toured the Jim Pattison Children\u2019s Hospital yesterday with some of my family,\u201d Ferland noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to see the NICU. I didn\u2019t go to that NICU (where he was born) \u2014 it was the previous one that we went to \u2014\u00a0but it was a full-circle moment to see that with my mom and kind of hearing the story she went through as well during that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of full-circle moments this week and I feel very grateful to be a part of this province.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a part of the Roughriders, to whom Ferland is now under contract through the 2027 season. His previous deal was to expire after the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cLogan has become a foundational player for our team,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cHe just has tremendous value, he\u2019s involved with the community, and he has become a leader in our locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as Ferland heard and appreciated those words, he felt compelled to deflect the commendation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has been a big part of this, with how much they have sacrificed as well,\u201d the former Melfort Comets and Regina Thunder standout emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who I really thought about when this deal was made \u2014 how much support I\u2019ve had throughout my journey \u2026 through high school, junior and now in the CFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just incredibly grateful to the organization and to the people who have helped me along the way. There are way too many to name and I\u2019m probably going to miss someone, so I\u2019m not going to individually credit anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, first and foremost, there\u2019s my family, the Club and anyone who has helped me along this journey. It\u2019s a huge honour to be a part of this and I\u2019m really excited for the next step we\u2019re going to take as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferland\u2019s first steps on a football field are largely the result of exhortations from Ryan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother is the one who even convinced me to play football,\u201d the four-time PFC all-star said. \u201cHe played football for the Melfort Comets and it was a really good opportunity for me to kind of step out of my comfort zone and play. I had played soccer before that, so I wasn\u2019t the typical athlete you\u2019d see going into football.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018If you want to try something new, try this team sport,\u2019 and it is something that has clicked ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferland began playing football at age 14. A year later, his father passed away at age 56 after a battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

Marcel Ferland\u2019s wife, Cathy, continues to be a pillar of strength for Logan and his older brothers, Ryan and Beau.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom \u2026 I can\u2019t say enough about her,\u201d Logan said. \u201cI\u2019ll be tearing up if I talk about her too much. I\u2019m extremely grateful for all the sacrifices that she has made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are the things we have gone through as a family and what that has brought us to. Everything has come full circle since that moment as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s my girlfriend, Telia, and the sacrifices she has made and continues to make as I continue my CFL career.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, there are too many people to name. Anyone who has been with me throughout my career knows how much they mean to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same appreciative mindset is applicable to Ferland\u2019s teammates \u2014 particularly his cohorts on the offensive line, some of whom share home-province connections.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Ferland became the seventh consecutive Saskatchewan-born player to be named the Roughriders\u2019 Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.<\/p>\n

Brendon LaBatte, from Weyburn, received those laurels in 2017 and 2018. Regina-born Dan Clark was recognized in 2019 and 2021 \u2014\u00a0the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19 \u2014\u00a0before a fellow Thunder alumnus, Ferland, followed in 2022, 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the guys who are from this province and I saw how special it was to them,\u201d Ferland said. \u201cThey kind of passed that torch to me and now I can carry on that tradition from those Sask boys who really led the way \u2014\u00a0and also being O-linemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that O-linemen are one of the closest groups on the football field and there\u2019s a reason for that. We\u2019re a very family-oriented, close-knit group and I think it translates well to the rest of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can feel that in the room and it\u2019s going to continue to show as the season goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the career goes on, Ferland will become increasingly involved in community initiatives \u2014 generally under the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation umbrella \u2014 as a means of thanking the province he is proud to call home.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to represent the Riders \u2014 not only during the season, but during the off-season as well \u2014 and being able to reach kids all over the province with our reading program or our mental health program is something really special,\u201d Ferland said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be continuing to grow that game and grow that mentality throughout Saskatchewan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The notion of serving the community hits close to home for Ferland, considering the touch-and-go state he was in nearly 28 years ago at Royal University Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I came out of it with really nothing but a penicillin allergy is pretty wild,\u201d he marvelled. \u201cAnother full-circle moment would be going to the NICU now and being able to support the new one, the Jim Pattison, and see everything they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear the stories from Mom about how it used to be and the things they struggled with that aren\u2019t even a factor now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s any way I can volunteer to help any programs through Ronald McDonald House or the Jim Pattison Children\u2019s Hospital, I think that\u2019s going to be my next step in really giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SASKATOON \u2014\u00a0During a media gathering that was unavoidably about himself, Logan Ferland made a point of shining the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-364419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}