Every game, don\u2019t miss Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Facemask \u2014 a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders. This week: Roughriders kicker Alex Hale .<\/p>\n
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Every game, don\u2019t miss Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Facemask \u2014 a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
This week: Roughriders kicker Alex Hale.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:
\nAll right, it\u2019s Behind the Facemask this week with Alex Hale from Gosford, New South Wales, Australia.<\/p>\n
And Gossy \u2014 that\u2019s the nickname?<\/p>\n
Paint the picture for us. What\u2019s Gosford like?<\/p>\n
Alex Hale:
\nYeah, it\u2019s a beautiful little coastal town.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re about 10 minutes from the beach and right on the bay too, so lots of water and lots of sunshine.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nI saw the aqua park.<\/p>\n
Have you ever hit that up?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYeah, when I was younger my brother and I used to go down there and jump off all the inflatable slides and all that stuff in the water.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nThis is probably a question you\u2019ve been asked a lot.<\/p>\n
When do you find out about North American football? How does that happen?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nI grew up mostly playing soccer.<\/p>\n
My dad played rugby, so every now and then we\u2019d go down to the field and kick rugby conversions, kind of similar to uprights but off a tee.<\/p>\n
It started as something we did for fun.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d joke that maybe one day I\u2019d end up kicking in American football.<\/p>\n
But it didn\u2019t really become a reality until after high school.<\/p>\n
I moved to America where my brother was living for a few months, met my kicking coach and spent some time with him learning the position.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nWhere was your brother living? Was the plan always to make inroads into football or did it just happen?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nHe was at San Diego State playing soccer and studying.<\/p>\n
I moved over with him for a few months and thought it was something worth trying.<\/p>\n
My coach thought I had potential, so I took it from there and eventually went off to college.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nYou\u2019re a walk-on at Oklahoma State.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s always a gamble.<\/p>\n
Were you confident?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYeah, I was confident in my ability.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019d never actually played a football game, never put on shoulder pads or a helmet.<\/p>\n
Everything was new territory.<\/p>\n
But they showed interest in me and I decided to take the gamble.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nBesides soccer, what other sports did you play?<\/p>\n
Australian Rules? Surfing?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nA little bit of everything.<\/p>\n
Mainly soccer.<\/p>\n
But living by the water, I grew up surfing and water skiing.<\/p>\n
I played tennis too.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nNo golf mention there.<\/p>\n
I saw the Instagram swing. You look like you\u2019ve got some game.<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nGolf\u2019s more of a hobby.<\/p>\n
Whenever we get a day off, I\u2019ll get out and hit a few balls.<\/p>\n
Nothing too impressive.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nWhat\u2019s the handicap?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nUsually mid-80s.<\/p>\n
Every now and then I can put together a decent score.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nFavourite Australian golfer?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nI like watching Jason Day.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got a good YouTube channel too.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nGame day Saturday, Sunday, are you sitting on the couch watching the U.S. Open?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYeah, for sure.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nWhat would you shoot at Shinnecock Hills?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nHigher than the numbers go up.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nYour college career was a grind.<\/p>\n
Then there was the injury in pregame warmup.<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYeah.<\/p>\n
I waited a few years for my opportunity.<\/p>\n
Started playing in 2020 and had a good first half of the season.<\/p>\n
Then I injured my knee during pregame.<\/p>\n
That put me out for another year and a half.<\/p>\n
It was definitely difficult coming back from that, but I stuck with it and eventually got a full season at the end.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nWhat did you take in school?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nApplied exercise science.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nAnd what does someone do with that?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nOriginally the plan was to move into physiotherapy.<\/p>\n
But I haven\u2019t stopped playing football since graduating.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nThen you have a great final season and get a look professionally.<\/p>\n
But then there\u2019s another injury, and that\u2019s why you wear the glasses?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYeah.<\/p>\n
I spent a year with Green Bay on the practice squad.<\/p>\n
Then about a week before heading back for preseason camp in 2025, I injured my eye.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I wear the glasses now, to help with brightness and a little bit with vision.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nI know Rider Nation has been wondering about that.<\/p>\n
When\u2019s the first time you heard about the CFL and maybe Regina?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nComing out of college, I\u2019d talked with Kent Maugeri a few times about potentially coming up here.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t work out then, but eventually things moved in this direction and it worked out this year.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nBesides Rider Nation and the fans, what\u2019s been your favourite part of Regina?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nI appreciate the energy of the city.<\/p>\n
Canada feels pretty similar to Australia in a lot of ways, the people and the culture.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve really enjoyed that.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nDo you study the wind in different stadiums? Hamilton, Montreal, all these places can be tricky.<\/p>\n
How do you approach that?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nYou take it kick by kick.<\/p>\n
Pregame gives you an idea of the conditions for that day, but by kickoff things can completely change.<\/p>\n
Some stadiums definitely have tendencies, but at the end of the day you\u2019ve got to adjust in the moment.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nWhat\u2019s game day like for a kicker?<\/p>\n
Take us through the routine.<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nIf it\u2019s an afternoon game, I try to get as much sleep as possible.<\/p>\n
Grab a coffee and breakfast.<\/p>\n
Relax and take my mind off football for a bit.<\/p>\n
Then a couple hours before kickoff, start stretching, getting loose and head to the stadium.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nHeadphone guy during warmup?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nNot normally.<\/p>\n
The stadium usually has pretty good music.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nAny Aussie bands they should be playing?<\/p>\n
Alex:
\nMaybe.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not much of a music guy.<\/p>\n
Barney:
\nAlex Hale, thanks so much for doing this and giving us a look behind who you are.<\/p>\n
Great to meet you.<\/p>\n
Another edition of Behind the Facemask with Alex Hale.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every game, don\u2019t miss Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Facemask \u2014 a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,268364,82],"class_list":["post-750561","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-saskatchewan-roughridersalex-halebehind-the-facemask","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750561","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=750561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}