Barrie native Jake Julien was determined to find a football field.
The Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Eagles senior punter needed to get some practice in, but with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing the sports world to a halt, finding a decent set of uprights and an open field with yard markers on it was no easy task.
Here it was June and Julien was driving all around Michigan when he found an open field in eastern Detroit. The student-athlete was in for quite the surprise when he saw who was already there kicking footballs.
"Just out of the blue, (Detroit Lions kicker) Matt Prater was there," the 21-year-old Barrie North Collegiate graduate told BarrieToday. "I found him out of sheer luck around June of this year and then I got to work out with him all summer. We became pretty good friends.
"They had recently traded away their punter, so he needed someone to hold for him and luckily I held for Eastern here," Julien added. "I gave him some holds and he gave me some pointers along the way.
"It was awesome that I got to form a really good relationship with him."
Prater wasn't the only member of the Lions roster that Julien got to hang out and learn from. Punter Jake Fox also joined the workouts.
Julien, who is listed at six-foot-two and 217 pounds, had been thinking of maybe going home for a week before school starts to see his family until he ran into Prater.
"I wouldn't have another chance (to go home) until Christmas, then I just got really lucky," he said. "It was awesome to compete with them all summer, learn and just see what it's like at the next level."
That long drive paid off.
"Those 45 minutes were definitely well spent," said Julien, who is studying secondary education at EMU.
It's proven to be quite the year for the university senior. Julien, who ranks first in the EMU record books with a 43.8 season punting average, was looking forward to his final year with the Eagles until the coronavirus pandemic hit and things were shut down in March.
Then came the news in early August that their NCAA Division 1 Mid-American Conference (MAC) season had been postponed.
"At that point, we had been practising for a couple of months," he said.
Just when the season appeared to be a write-off, news came down in late-September they would be able to return to MAC competition. Julien and his teammates are now all set to kick off the season next Wednesday at Kent State in Ohio.
"It means a ton, because honestly the whole virus thing came out of nowhere and nobody expected it, in my opinion, to last this long," said Julien, who turns 22 later this week. "Just our athletic department, our coaches, all the players we have made all the sacrifices that we could to make this season possible. So, just having all the sacrifices and all the decision making and the right choices from higher, that just means a lot to be able to play."
Julien is just happy to be back with the guys. Normally, the team remains in Ypsilanti, Mich., all year long working out. Because of the pandemic, though, they were in 12-man group pods and socially distanced.
Being back with the full group makes a world of difference, says Julien.
"It's going to be great getting back on the field," he said. "Some stadiums will have fans, but some won't. It'll be a little different, but just having those two hours of football to just get away from everything will allow us to realize there's a little bit of normal in the world and that will be nice."
Julien's journey to Ypsilanti and a football scholarship is quite something. A soccer and rugby player at Barrie North, football was the last thing on his mind until one day at soccer practice when he saw some of the football players trying to hit 50-yard field goals. He thought it was easy and went over and proved exactly that.
Next thing he knew, he was on the Viking football team.
"I was just hitting 50-yarders before practice and the coach was like, 'Jake, maybe this isn't a joke. You should give this a real shot'," recalled the Vikings kicker and punter, who helped the school capture a Georgian Bay title. "So I put on the pads and gave it a shot and from there it's where I'm at now."
Julien had an offer to join York University and that's where he thought he would be until he got a phone call from Eastern Michigan that summer of his high school senior year. They couldn't offer him a scholarship, but would give him an opportunity to walk-on and compete for the punting job.
"I thought, 'Do I want to tell my kids that I could have gone to Division 1? I could have played in America?'," Julien asked himself. "Could I have done this or do I actually want to go do it? So I dug my feet in, grit my teeth and four years later I'm really happy about that decision."
After two seasons with the Eagles, he was put on a scholarship.
"That was probably the first time I've ever been paid to do what I love," said the Ray Guy Award nominee, who is the only punter in EMU school history to record two punts of more than 70 yards. "Now, just coming into my senior year having opportunities to play at the next level, whether it's NFL, CFL or anything that comes up, I'll definitely take any opportunity I can get."
The Second Team All-Mac punter says the success he's enjoyed on the field with EMU is thanks in large part to the guys he has around him. Head coach Chris Creighton and special team co-ordinator Jay Nunez have a mantra as a team that what wins games is special teams, turnovers and takeaways.
"That is our way we can win football games," Julien said. "So having guys that actually care, that definitely sets it up because there's plenty of guys in Division 1 football who can punt the ball a quarter-mile, but it's all about the guys you have around you to help out."
The Eagles have been ignored in the past by the bigger programs such as Purdue University, Rutgers University and Illinois, but those days, Julien explained, are coming to an end.
"We're making a name for ourselves," he said. "People don't take us seriously, but now I really think we're in that breakthrough where we're closing out these close games and we're becoming a legitimate program where teams have to take us seriously."
Julien, who, like other senior Division 1 players, will be eligible to play a fifth season because of the pandemic, remembers that first year when he headed to Michigan and people told him playing Division 1 was a great dream, but that they don't know if it would happen for him.
"If you have that dream, chase it, because you don't want to look back and say, 'Dang, I really wish I did that'," he said. "I'm only 18 to 22 once, right? Football is one of those sports you can't join a men's league when you're 40 and strap up again. I'm making the most out of these four to five years I have here and hopefully if I work hard enough in these four to five I have an even better 10 to 15 that I can set up my life.
"I just want to kick balls until I can't," he added.
