Double Chin

 

The Chin brothers, Jordan and Casey, have each emerged from the New Westminster Hyacks program to blossoming university careers.

Casey the quiet one, three years older and three inches taller, is the leading tackler in NCAA Div. 2. Jordan the outgoing one is distinguishing himself on the Concordia Stingers, after joining this fall.

Behind both brothers’ success is their father Kevin Chin, a thirty-year coaching veteran, who passed away in 2007, but continues to inspire his sons.

Their coach with the Hyacks, Farhan Lalji, joins Jordan and Casey in reflecting on their careers, their past, and their futures with CFC.

When asked what was the most memorable event of his time knowing and coaching Jordan and Casey Chin, the college football star brothers, Farhan Lalji takes a thoughtful pause before answering. Lalji is known throughout the country as a roving sports reporter for TSN, but for eleven years he is has been better known to the players of the New Westminster Hyacks as ‘Coach.’ For a number of those years, he worked alongside Kevin Chin, Jordan and Casey’s father.

“One of things when Kevin first came to our program, he said he hoped that one day they would get to play together,” Lalji says with a touch of wistfulness. “I didn’t think much about it at the time, because they were three years apart in age, but when Kevin passed away, I talked to his wife, Sylvie, that day.”

“Obviously she was quite emotional and I was too, and she just said, ‘Promise me that one day you will let them play together.’”

It was a promise that Lalji made sure he kept. In Casey’s grade twelve year, during a Hyack rout of the West Vancouver Highlanders, the Hyacks had need of a back-up long snapper. Casey was starting long snapper, and both Jordan and Casey had had the skill to be a long snapper drilled into them early on by their father. Lalji saw his opportunity to bring the brothers together on the field.

“Jordy dressed for our varsity team as a ninth grader because he could be our back-up long snapper,” Lalji says. “I put Jordy in the game, and so they were both there together.”

The game ended with the Hyacks triumphant and the Chin brothers sharing the gridiron for the one and only time.

“We got a picture of the two of them together and we called it ‘Double Chin,’” Lalji says with a smile. “They both had that perfect linebacker stance, and you could see Jordy imitating Casey.”

“It just gives me goose bumps to think about it. That is probably what I remember more than anything: just thinking about Kevin when the two of them were on the field.”

(Photo of Double Chin – credit Alan Wardle)

Though they have made the move to university football, both Casey and Jordan recall their game together as one of the most memorable events in their football careers.

“At the time all I could think of was to finish the game,” Casey says. “But I was very proud of my little brother because not many 9th graders get to play varsity.”

“I’m sure he made a tackle or two but it was and is one of my fondest memories from my senior year of high school football.”

Their time with the Hyacks has left a profound mark on the brothers, and it is easy to see why. The New Westminster Hyacks have been one of the most phenomenal success stories in Canadian high school football. Since the resurrection of the football program at New Westminster Secondary School, defunct since 1977, the Hyacks have performed beyond expectations, with either the Varsity or Junior Varsity teams qualifying for the post-season every year.

Since 2003, twenty-five Hyacks players have earned scholarship places in Canada and the United States. Among the players that have made their way to that next stage of their careers on the gridiron are Casey and Jordan, and they have each established themselves strongly on the university scene.

Casey has been a standout star linebacker and long snapper for the Simon Fraser Clan since moving up to college football in 2010. He has been the leading tackler in the NCAA Division 2 for three seasons running, and is tipped as Number 12, and the top British Columbian, on the prospects list for the 2014 CFL draft. Jordan joined the university ranks this fall as a linebacker and long snapper for the Stingers of Concordia University in Montreal.

(Photo of Casey Chin – credit Ron Hole)

The move to Quebec was both a natural one for Jordan, who is bilingual following a twelve-year French Immersion education as well as having a Francophone mother, and a bid to remove himself from the perceived shadow of his brother.

“Casey is certainly the best defensive player we’ve ever had in our program, if not the best player period,” Lalji says. “That was a hard shadow for Jordy to grow up in, because Jordy has always been around our program ever since Casey came to the school.”

“He watched first hand how dominant Casey was as a player, and that was always something he was going to have to live up to.”

Casey is philosophical about his perceived overshadowing of his brother on the gridiron.

“In some ways I can see why people would say this but he has accomplished things that I haven’t,” Casey says. “He went to provincials for wrestling and was athlete of the year in high school his senior year, both things I have never done.”

“I think if people stopped comparing him to me all the time he would get a lot more respect and recognition. I am older than him and more physically dominant than him that’s just science and sometimes people forget that.”

Casey is not, however, above a little fraternal teasing about the issue.

“In my opinion he is the second best linebacker to ever come out of New West. Second to me of course,” Casey says laughing.

For Coach Lalji, the lack of recruiting attention that Jordan received in comparison to Casey is all about the entrenched habits of recruiters, not any lack of skill on Jordan’s part.

“Jordy is not as tall as Casey, and Casey’s not tall to begin with,” says Lalji.  “Casey is about 5’11’’and Jordy is about 5’8’’.”

“Jordy doesn’t have the tangibles that Casey has, just because he is a little shorter and things like that, and while he finds ways to make up for that, he was always going to be in Casey’s shadow. And as good as Casey was, I also believe that Casey played on a better team. So I have often said that Casey had holes that were one or two feet wide that he had to fill while Jordy had holes that were one or two yards wide that he had to fill. It was harder for Jordy because he had to do more. He had to do more with less than Casey did.”

For his part, Jordan does agree that he has been in his brother’s shadow where football is concerned.

“I find it to be a little true, [Casey] leaves a mark when he plays and people say I should be like that,”  he says.

However, he refuses to be drawn into any speculation on the recruiting process.

“The recruiting process is what it is, and I have nothing to say on it,” he says flatly. “I was worried but Coach Lalji kept me motivated about it.”

With the brothers busy carving out their respective careers on opposite sides of the country, their geographical distance accentuates the fact they have always been seen as opposites in personality. Casey is known as the strong and silent brother, his quietude hinting at focus and depth. Jordan is the talkative, outgoing brother, his garrulousness belying his own discipline and hard work.

Both brothers have heard this assessment of them all their lives, and happily acknowledge the truth of it.

“I would have to say that this is a very accurate interpretation of us,” Casey says. “Jordy has always been talkative with anyone anywhere whereas I was always a little more shy.”

When asked whether their different personality types might prove an advantage or a disadvantage in football, as some assert, Jordan is clear in his dismissal of the speculation.

“I don’t think of it as either,” Jordan says, “It is just the way it turned out to be.”

Lalji has worked with both brothers closely and endorses the view of the Chin’s contrary personalities.

“You can get more words in one day out of Jordy than you will in one year out of Casey,” he says laughing. “I joke to Casey’s girlfriend all the time: do you guys ever have conversations? He’s always so quiet.”

He does however make clear that any stereotypical views of one personality type lending itself better to the hard work and focus needed for football success is unwarranted.

“I think when you view them on the surface you might suggest that Jordy talks too much to be focused on what he’s doing, but that it is the farthest thing from the truth,” says Lalji.  “He’s got an outgoing personality but he’s still very passionate about football and passionate about getting stronger and training.”

“He works hard.  You look at Casey and figure because he doesn’t talk much he wouldn’t be an effective leader, but he really, really is. He has the ability to lead vocally, but he primarily does it by example. He doesn’t say as much as some, but what he says has an impact. So on either side, what you might perceive to be drawback still turns out to be a strength for both of them.”

In Lalji’s over twenty-five year coaching career, he has coached over forty players that moved onwards to play college football. Needless to say, Lalji has seen a lot of football talent in his time, but hearing him talk about Casey and Jordan Chin you sense that he has seen something particularly special in these young players.

To find that special something, one can maybe point to Kevin Chin, Casey and Jordan’s father, for the answer. Kevin Chin had a thirty-year coaching career before his untimely death in 2007, and Lalji feels his influence still, personally as much as professionally.

“There are little lessons in fatherhood I learned from him that I carry on with my own kids to this day,” Lalji says.

He also sees their father’s impact as crucial early on for his sons, and equally vital in Jordan and Casey’s continuing development as players and as men.

“Their dad was a fantastic coach, an even better person, and most importantly he was an unbelievable father. He still impacts both of these young men greatly,” Lalji says.  “I think the biggest thing he taught them was about focus and commitment.”

“He taught them to commit to what they were doing, have a focus for what you are doing, and not to get sidetracked. I think they have both been able to do that.”

Jordan and Casey’s assessments of their father’s influence are similar to Lalji’s.

“My father was a big influence on how I play and what it takes to be part of a team, I also learned to work hard for everything to get where I am,” Jordan says. “The most influential people in my life are my family: my father, my mother and my brother.”

“We’ve been through a lot together and they are always there.”

“My father is the most influential person in my life,” Casey adds. “Everything I do in life and the way I do it is to make my dad and mom proud.”

“I wish he could have seen me play college football but I know he is looking down on both me and Jordy.”

Max Olesen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/WritingOlesen