A20 • Friday, December 14, 2012 • The Record
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Citizen of the Year: Farhan Lalji relaxed at home with wife Mary after being named New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year.
Lalji named for award tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com
Third time is a charm for Farhan Lalji. Lalji, who resurrected the New Westminster Hyacks football program in 2003, has been named as New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year. “It’s nice,” he said about the recognition. “It’s the third time I have been nominated for this award.” The Citizen of the Year Award was one of a number of awards given out at the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce’s Platinum Awards celebration on Nov. 15. Lalji said the award reflects the efforts of a team of people involved with the Hyacks football program. He said he and Chad Oatway, a teacher at New Westminster Secondary School and head coach of the juvenile football team, work as a team. “We run our programs together. He does exactly what I do,” he said. “I tend to be a little more visible because of my job. Chad and I do all this together. He matches me minute for minute. If I am going to accept it, I accept it on behalf of both of us.” Lalji believes the recognition is also about the positive impacts the football program has on players, rather than football action on the field. “We are not coaching football, we are coaching young men,” he said. That message hit home during the Hyacks recent 10-year reunion as part of Homecoming 2012. Whether they were part of winning teams or less successful seasons on the field, Lalji said players who returned for the anniversary celebration have demonstrated the pos-
itive impact that the football program has had on their lives. “It’s Citizen of the Year,” he said of the award. “We want to create citizens.” Lalji looks forward to the day when students involved in the Hyacks program are themselves being named Citizen of the Year. He notes the team’s motto SHARP – selflessness, hard work, accountability, respect and passion – is displayed on the dressing room walls for all players to see. “The hardest thing for teenage boys to understand is accountability. It truly is,” he said. “It’s a very difficult lesson. I am always saying, ‘Own it.’ That is a hard thing.” Lalji was born in Tanzania and moved to Vancouver at the age of five. He grew up in Burnaby, where he played football for Burnaby Central. Lalji, now a senior sports reporter with TSN/ CTV, later played for the Meralomas football organization in Vancouver. He coached at Burnaby Central for 12 years. “I wanted to start my own program,” he said Speaking with administration at New Westminster Secondary School and a Vancouver high school, he decided to pursue a program in the Royal City. “New West just seemed like a no-brainer because it is a one-school town,” he said. “Growing up next to it, it felt like a small town.” A year after launching the football program in 2003, Lalji married his wife Mary and they moved to New Westminster in 2005. It’s a move that other coaching staff have also made. “All of us committed to the community,” he said. “We didn’t just want to do football.”
Balancing a career, a family that includes two young children and football responsibilities can be challenging, but Lalji gets a lot of help along the way. “It certainly has gotten harder with children,” he said. “My wife has made it super easy. She doesn’t make it hard to commit my time to football.” Having taken some ribbing at work for his previous Citizen of the Year nominations, Lalji will be able to show that the community he now calls home has recognized his efforts. He notes that the timing of the recognition is “painfully ironic” as the team had a “bit of a down year” – but he’s up for the challenge of better years ahead.
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