The starting quarterback of the CFL\u2019s top-seeded team was a popular presence at Canada\u2019s Farm Show on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Trevor Harris, who earned Grey Cup MVP honours after helping the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 on Nov. 16 in Winnipeg, amiably chatted with fans and posed with them for photographs alongside the CFL\u2019s championship trophy during an enjoyable visit to REAL District.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good opportunity,\u201d Wadena farmer Greg Sowa said. \u201c(Harris) was very personable and easy to chat with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris was also introduced to Sowa\u2019s wife (Bonnie) and son (Leevi), who are also key players in the operation of Wadena-based Sow-Mor Ag.<\/p>\n
Leevi also has a connection to Foam Lake \u2014\u00a0the hometown of Roughriders President-CEO Craig Reynolds.<\/p>\n
Like Reynolds, Leevi is a proud alumnus of the Foam Lake Panthers high school football program.<\/p>\n
Anyone who subscribes to the notion that \u201clife on the farm is kinda laid-back\u201d should attempt to process the agenda of a teenaged Leevi Sowa.<\/p>\n
Leevi attended Wadena Composite School while representing Foam Lake Composite High School on the gridiron. Wadena was a feeder school for the Panthers, whose fertile farm system also included players from Kelvington.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d practise in the morning so we could farm after school,\u201d the former Foam Lake linebacker recalled.<\/p>\n
That would be a hectic routine without factoring in the 30-kilometre drive to Foam Lake.<\/p>\n
Following the workout and the drive back to Wadena, Leevi and friends attended a full day of classes.<\/p>\n
The final bell of every school day signalled the commencement of work on the family farm. And then there was homework.<\/p>\n
With spring seeding drawing closer, Leevi and his parents made the 200-kilometre trip to Regina for the Farm Show.<\/p>\n
En route to REAL District on Thursday, Leevi and his parents were informed by a friendly shuttle driver named James that Harris and the Grey Cup would be making a one-hour appearance, beginning at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t really expect it,\u201d Leevi said.<\/p>\n
Before the photo session, Harris was interviewed on stage by Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel as \u201cSaskatchewan Roughriders Championship Celebration\u201d appeared on a giant backdrop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really connected team,\u201d Harris said when asked about the Roughriders of 2025. \u201cI think that, a lot of times, the closest families pray together and they\u2019re connected together. When you have that tight-knit team, whether it\u2019s through prayer or whatever that may be, I think you\u2019re closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our team got closer and closer, we were able to do more for one another. The more you care about somebody, the more you\u2019re willing to sacrifice for them. That\u2019s why family is so important.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you can, as a team, become more like family, you can push each other further, you\u2019ll sacrifice more and you\u2019ll ultimately become a better team \u2014\u00a0a team that can hoist the Grey Cup at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jolly-Nagel, a successful farmer and public speaker who grew up near Mossbank, took those words to heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really resonates with me,\u201d she said in response to Harris. \u201cWe have some truly amazing people on our farm \u2014\u00a0some family members and some chosen family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really good advice. We\u2019re going to take that back to our farm team, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
An entertaining, insightful interview with Harris wrapped up when Jolly-Nagel observed: \u201cYou have a lot of fans in the room today \u2014\u00a0a lot of fans at the Farm Show. Truly, without a doubt, Saskatchewan fans are famous across the country, but I do a lot of travelling around the world and I run into a whole lot of fellow fans wearing green. What did it mean to you and the team to bring back a Grey Cup to Rider Nation and the world\u2019s best fans?\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as Harris has already turned his attention to the 2026 Roughriders, he was happy to put the achievements of last season\u2019s team in perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really understand it until it was done and we came back (to Saskatchewan) and we talked to the people around here,\u201d the Roughriders\u2019 No. 7 replied. \u201cIt was an absolutely phenomenal reception. It has been phenomenal listening to people. They\u2019re saying, \u2018Thank you so much,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018Naah, you guys earned this as well.\u2019 This is our championship together as a community, as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cRider Nation is just everywhere. It\u2019s amazing. When I used to play in Toronto, we used to talk about, \u2018Do you think the Saskatchewan fans are going to be loud at our home games?\u2019 It was just crazy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy personal trainer lives in Florida and we (communicate by) Zoom. I sent him down some Rider gear and he runs into people all the time who say, \u2018You root for the Riders, too?!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take the person out of Saskatchewan, but you can\u2019t take Saskatchewan out of the person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The starting quarterback of the CFL\u2019s top-seeded team was a popular presence at Canada\u2019s Farm Show on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-549313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549313","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=549313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}