St. Joes Celtics kick returner wins NFL Canada Way to Play Award – My Grande Prairie Now

A local high school kick returner has grabbed the attention of the National Football League after making a 90-yard kick return touchdown.

Alex Hiemstra, an 18-year-old special teamer for the St. Joes Celtics received the Week 9 NFL Canada Way to Play award for his massive return. The humble Hiemstra says while the play was exciting to make, he was only following orders.

“I could see the kicker, his body started to face me so I understood the ball was coming my way, we knew the contain on the right side had been weak in previous games, so my special teams coach had our team running it that way,” he says. “I went in front, took it back to the middle of the field where I’d have more space and there was no one else, and I trusted my blocker and my own speed and I ended up making it to the end zone.”

Hiemstra now joins a select group of Canadian football players thanks to his award win; however, he credits his coach Aaron Wales with not only drawing up the play, but nominating him in the first place.

“When I make a big play it’s hard to remember it usually, my mind does its own thing, I’m following through the motions, we’ve run it lots in practice, I’m going where I need to be and my body just goes where it needs to go,” he says. “I heard about the Way to Play over the past couple of years and I was really excited when I made that play so I texted my coach and said- can we send this in, and a couple days later I got a text from him in the morning, it was a screenshot of an email saying I actually won the award, and I was surprised,” he laughs.

As Hiemstra finishes up his high school career, his eyes have shifted to his more long-term goals, which include playing collegiate or junior football, before going pro.

“The future goal is to eventually go on to use football as a career, I’d love to be able to make it into the CFL or… it’s a big dream but even the NFL one day, obviously that’s a long way down but as of right now the first step is either going to be junior or university football and work from there,” he says.

Thanks to his win, Hiemstra was featured on CTV’s NFL broadcast, and to further honour the achievement, St. Joes will receive $3,000 for new equipment.