brunswickansports
Feb. 22, 2012 • Issue 22 • Volume 145 • 19
DesRoches: The accidental athlete By Sean O’Neill
“I’m a freak, man.” Alex DesRoches is sitting at Tim Horton’s eating a Boston Cream and drinking a medium (formerly large) double-double. With an hour to kill before work one day, he ate four of the gooey donuts. He has a Coke with his meal before every shift. He also admits to eating a full McCain’s pizza and guzzling a couple more Cokes when he comes home. That’s 2,760 calories. With this diet, DesRoches should barely squeeze into a size 50 pair of jeans. But he’s a 23-year-old student at the University of New Brunswick, and his job for the past five years has been playing basketball for the Varsity Reds. His coach calls the 6’4 forward Mr. DoubleDouble, but it’s hard to determine whether he’s referring to points and rebounds or sugar and cream. This calorie intake would leave most men rooted to the hardwood like an anchor. Instead he averaged 11.4 points and 7.9 rebounds for his five-year career. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“We didn’t have a clue who he was” Alexander Paul DesRoches’s basketball journey started in the seventh grade, much later than most athletes begin. Organized sports weren’t part of his childhood because his childhood wasn’t organized. His parents divorced when he was an infant. He spent the majority of his time with his mother Diane, in Dieppe, and every second weekend he travelled to PEI to be with father, Calvin. In grade seven, his friend Luc Drisdelle convinced him to tryout for the basketball team at École AnnaMalenfant. He made the team, but didn’t compare himself to Drisdelle. Going into Grade 10, he sprouted to 6’4 and his natural athletic gifts began to show. His high school gym teacher, Roger Cormier, told him to try out for the Canada Games team in Fredericton. DesRoches said, “Why not?” Fred Connors, had watched every single one of these kids before, until a string bean from Dieppe walked into the gym. Connors looked and said, “Who is this guy?” As coach of New Brunswick’s men’s basketball team for the 2005 Games in Regina, Connors had done 3 ID camps around the province, scouting players who would come to the tryouts in Fredericton. The final roster consisted of numerous eventual CIS players and a CFL linebacker. And DesRoches. He was one of 25 to survive the original 60, solely on raw athleticism and intrigue. While Connors thought he was “too small for the four and didn’t have the skill set for the three,” after the second tryout, DesRoches was on the plane to Regina. During the tournament DesRoches was the first man off the bench, but would be subbed out earlier than he wanted. Being the team’s sixth man and one of the top five players on the team in its efficiency rating wasn’t good enough. Connors, who is now the women’s basketball coach at St. Thomas University, said after taking him out of a game, “Look how far you’ve come. You weren’t on our radar and now you’re playing at the Canada Games.” “It was a real pleasure to coach that guy,” Connors said. When he arrived back at Mathieu-Martin for his final year of high school, his confidence was as high as the CN Tower. At his first practice he looked at his teammates and said, “Hey, Jared! Check this out!” He took the orange ball, bounced it off the floor and smashed the ball through the rim with both hands. “Without making that team I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now,” DesRoches says. But where was he going? He won team MVP in his final year of high school but offers from
universities didn’t come, nor were his marks worthy of acceptance. He spent his high school years barely studying, keeping a 60 average and goofing around in class. DesRoches decided to try his luck with the RCMP. There was one problem. At a party in grade 12, he was offered some marijuana and tried it. He says he hasn’t smoked since. He was rejected and told to come back next year if he stayed clean. He spent the rest of the year working at Canadian Tire, and going to community college to upgrade. He discussed taking kinesiology with a guidance counselor. “It’s either Dalhousie, UNB or Memorial.” “I didn’t want to go to Newfoundland, Dal was pretty expensive so I might as well apply to UNB,” he said. After being accepted, he emailed UNB coach Thomas Gillespie, and gave him his basketball C.V. and list of coaches to contact. “I invited him to workout in the summertime,” Gillespie said. “I said, ‘You’re going to have to tryout and earn your way on the team.’ In terms of coaching, you’re not going to make a promise you can’t keep.” Despite spending the majority of his time working at Canadian Tire, taking classes at community college and using his spare time not working on his jump shot, dribbling, passing or defensive stance, he made the team and averaged 20 minutes a game, seven points and five rebounds for his rookie year. UNB went 2-18 in his rookie season and Gillespie, DesRoches’ first AUS coach left the team at the end of the season. “When you’re losing it’s a lot more difficult to keep a happy camp,” Gillespie said, who is now the interim coach at CBU. “When players aren’t meeting expectations, they’re probably not going to hear a bunch of things they want to hear.” UNB hired former StFX player and women’s head coach Brent Baker. The first thing he was told about DesRoches from assistant
coach Kirt Mombourquette was that he was athletic. His first impression was the same thing, and that he was as intense as Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. That intensity almost made DesRoches quit. On Jan. 31, 2009, the Reds were sitting in the locker room at the Oland Centre in Antigonish after getting destroyed by StFX, 97-71. The night before in Sydney, Cape Breton, whooped UNB 91-62. “He was ready to tap out,” remembers Baker. “He had had enough.” After the game, DesRoches was supposed to lead the team cheer in the locker room. He refused and Lonzel Lowe did instead. He was sick and tired of losing, but was cursed out for his antics. “After that I assured him, we’re going to win, we’re going to get better every year, we’re going to win here, you just have to trust me,” Baker said. More than three years later, DesRoches says, “Baker is like a dad to me. With my dad not being around as much and him being around every single day...”
“The worst day.” Oct. 2, 2011, the first weekend of DesRoches’ final year at UNB. Mombourquette was there on Friday, but missed Saturday and then Sunday’s exhibition games. This wasn’t out of the ordinary; the man the team called “Mombo” didn’t make it to every game. Baker was told roughly 10 minutes before tip-off why Mombourquette wasn’t there. Immediately after the game when the team was huddled together, Baker said, “After shaking hands, go straight to the locker room. Don’t talk to your mom, don’t talk to your dad.” The players rushed down the Currie Center stairs to the locker room and sat in surprise. “Why is Baker pissed? We won!” T he lo c ker ro om do o r opened and in walked Baker and Dr. Rice Fuller from UNB Counselling Services. “Guy s ,” Baker said as he started to choke up, “Mombo passed away.” DesRoches dropped his head and let the time pass in a blur. “I cried for like 20 minutes straight.” After showering and getting dressed, teammate Colin Swift said, “let’s go get a bite to eat.” The two had known Mombourquette the longest and didn’t want to be alone. Baker told them to come with him instead. “I thought it was important that [DesRoches and Swift] who had the longest relationship with him and they should be together and they should know what’s going on,” Baker said. In the
car waiting for their coach, DesRoches tried to answer the questions that didn’t make sense. “Was it a heart attack? He was a healthy guy.” Baker got in the car and decided to be frank. He asked if they wanted to know. “Don’t fucking tell me, coach,” DesRoches said. Mombourquette was 37 years old. The team has worn a black band around the left shoulder strap of their jerseys in tribute since. He didn’t sleep a wink that night. Two days after the news, the team went to the wake. The casket was open. It was the second wake DesRoches had been to and the first for a person he cared for. He thought he had grieved enough in the prior 48 hours to last a lifetime. “I can do it. I can do it.” The team walked down the hall where there was a montage of pictures. “Keep it together. Keep it together.” He turned the corner at the funeral home and saw Mombourquette in the distance. He broke down. “He was probably the closest to Kirt Mombourquette,” Baker says, “because they’re very similar in the way they played, hard and stuff like that, and very passionate. That drove us closer together.” DesRoches stared at Kirt for 20 minutes through watered eyes, looking at his friend. His casket was surrounded by notes from his children and he was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals jersey, his favorite team. The first weekend of the regular season, Baker picked up Mombourquette’s son Lance so he could give the guys timbits after the game, like he always did. DesRoches noticed him reading a book but it had pages ripped out. “Lance, what happened?” “Daddy fixed it and put tape on it. Daddy can’t fix it anymore, mommy has to.” Twenty-three days after the wake, Mombo’s Cardinals are playing game six of the World Series and his V-Reds are in Ottawa for a tournament. If St. Louis lost to the Rangers that night, the championship is going to Texas. In the bottom of the 11th, the Cardinals’ David Freese hit a walk-off home run to send the series to seven, ending one of the most dramatic games in sports history. In a hotel room more than 1700 km away from Missouri, Mombo’s players were jumping and screaming at 12:38 in the morning. Reds rookie Seth Amoah yelled, “I know that was Mombo!” The next day, the Cardinals won the World Series.
“Hey, it’s Australia” “What are you doing after school?” Robbie Linton asked DesRoches in January, the only graduating player on UNB’s basketball team. “I don’t know, man. I kinda wanna play ball somewhere. But I don’t really have any connections.” Linton, who’s from Coffs Harbour, Australia, had some. He hooked DesRoches up with Matt Shanahan, who currently is the Development Manager for the Coffs Harbour Suns. If they had hooked up a month earlier, DesRoches could be playing pro ball down under this year. But the NBL of Australia has already begun its season and only allows two import players per team. After a week of deliberation, DesRoches bought a plane ticket and will travel across the world after he graduates in May and play with the Suns before trying out for the NBL next year. DesRoches tree-planted his way through UNB, so he doesn’t lack for independence. He also lacks wanting to end his basketball days. “I’m gonna play the basketball-travel-the-world card as long as I can. If that’s under a year or if that’s five, 10 years, that’s what I’ll do.” And if it doesn’t work out? “Once I decide or once they decide it’s not in the cards for me, I’ll come back and apply for the R.C.M.P. unless I love it there and find a good job there. I’m super spontaneous and random like that.”
Tim Lingley / The Brunswickan