EDMONTON – His football journey took many turns, down different paths, across the Prairies to the shores of the Pacific, each leading to the next.

Finally, Jamie Boreham set foot on the campus of the University of Manitoba.

He's bled brown and gold ever since.

"Manitoba just ended up being the right fit - the right people, the right place, I got into my program – it was just all-around a good situation, so when all the pieces fit together like that it just made perfect sense to be there," Jamie says.

After spending a year each at Saskatchewan and UBC, playing three award-winning seasons in the BCJFL, and being selected in the CFL Draft by his hometown B.C. Lions, Jamie joined coach Brian Dobie's Manitoba Bisons in 2001, culminating with a personal evolution that echoes throughout the man he is today.

"Coach Dobie put trust, responsibilities (and) leadership on me," continues Jamie, now 39. "He let me be who I was, and I excelled at being that."

Over three years at Manitoba, Jamie helped the Bisons reach the Vanier Cup for the first time in 31 years, was twice named an All-Canadian, and graduated with his Bachelor of Physical Education. A lengthy and well-traveled CFL career with stints on several different teams followed, before Jamie transitioned in his post-playing life as a junior football coach with the BCJFL's Okanagan Sun, and athletic director at Immaculata Catholic Regional High School in Kelowna.

"I've got to be one of the luckiest people in the world, because when I was five, I said, 'I want to play professional football', and when I got into high school, I said, 'I'm going to be a teacher like my dad and I'm going to be a coach'," Jamie says.

"So everything I dreamed I was going to do, I got to do, and there's not a whole lot of people that get to say that. It took me a whole bunch of places and different situations to accomplish everything, but it's a pretty neat thing."

Lessons Jamie learned all those years ago are the same he now imparts upon the next generation. Jamie's teachings bare all the markings of Brian Dobie, one of the most revered coaches in Canadian university football who is now in his 32nd season guiding the Bisons, and father Michael Boreham, who has taught grade school students in Vancouver for four decades, many of them as principal.

"Lots of stuff I learned was from my dad. He was my first coach, and at the end of the day he's probably going to be my last coach, because I still talk to him and he still coaches me on how I should be coaching," Jamie says. "With how personal and sincere coach Dobie is, he understands players need more than just a coach, and sometimes he's your dad and sometimes he's your coach and sometimes he's just an ear (willing) to listen."

There likely isn't a young player that Jamie can't relate to. After all, if there's something to experience in Western Canadian football, chances are he's seen it. Not only has he played all over the map, he's lined up all over the field.

As a first-year university player at UBC in 1996, Jamie played running back, slot receiver, wide receiver, cornerback, safety, kicker and punter. He played the next two seasons in the BCJFL with Abbotsford, where he played running back and safety, handled kicking and punting duties, and returned both kicks and punts for the Air Force.

His duties were just as extensive during his season with the Saskatchewan Huskies in 1999, and again when he returned to Abbotsford for one more year of junior football in 2000.

The B.C. Lions drafted Jamie in the second round of the 2001 CFL Draft with designs of making him a full-time kicker. When he was released prior to the start of the season, deciding to go to Manitoba was "the easiest thing ever.

"If I was asked to be on the Lions practice roster, I still would have gone to Manitoba … by that training camp I could kick, but I wasn't ready to be just a kicker" Jamie says, who was a Canada West All-Star at both placekicker and safety while playing for the Bisons and was named MVP of the Churchill Bowl in 2001 when Manitoba defeated McMaster to reach the Vanier Cup.

"Going back to university was the best thing for me. I got to finish my degree at Manitoba and that's what leads to where I am here which is amazing situation."

After graduating in 2003, Jamie would spend the better part of a decade in the CFL as a kicker/punter, making stops in Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Edmonton, and Saskatchewan, winning a Grey Cup with the 'Riders in 2007. He hung up his cleats in 2012 and entered the next chapter of his life, giving "back to other people what other people having given to me.

"Teaching is giving to kids and coaching is just the same, and … at the end of the day, I'm trying to teach the kids that I coach all the things that I wish I knew when I was their age, so hopefully they can be better than me and better than the new wave of kids coming up because they have that experience and knowledge from someone who's been there," says Jamie, who prior to this season became Okanagan's assistant head coach and special teams coordinator, returning to the league he dominated as multifaceted player some 20 years ago.

"A bunch of our kids are going to go play university, and I really hope the good ones go to the University of Manitoba," he says with a laugh. "No bias there."

About CW alumni spotlight:
Each year a new crop of Canada West student-athletes graduate and begin to make an impact in their communities as professionals. The CW Alumni Spotlight series looks to highlight the positive impact former CW student-athletes are making in communities across Western Canada and beyond.
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