As the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting left tackle, Takoby Cofield’s mission Sunday is to protect the blindside of quarterback Zach Collaros.
But a relief mission in which Cofield took part in May of 2012 still resonates with the 26-year-old product of Tarboro, N.C. He and nine other offensive linemen from the Duke University football team travelled to Ethiopia to dig a freshwater well in a remote area of the African country.
“It changed our season, changed our cohesiveness and changed my point of view as a human being completely,” Cofield said after Friday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium. “It changed my view on life and what’s important and what’s not. If I could, I’d recommend that everybody take a trip like that. It just puts into perspective a lot of the things we take for granted.
“The poverty over there is at a different level compared to a lot of what we see in the States and even up here in Canada. It’s an ordeal, but there are still smiles on people’s faces. They’re happy and they’re loving each other despite what they do and don’t have.”
The Duke contingent spent 12 days in Ethiopia, drilling one well by hand and helping to dig a second well in hopes of providing clean drinking water for residents of the area.
The effort and the surroundings took their toll on the athletes.
“I didn’t think the elevation was going to affect us, but we got winded after like five minutes …,” Cofield said. “(The residents) were looking at us like, ‘These big guys are going to knock out this well in an hour.’ We were looking at them like, ‘Man, this is rough.’ ”
The linemen lugged 100-pound bags of sand and cement through some treacherous areas to get to the well site. A percussion drilling system also sapped the players’ strength quicker than they expected.
But the bond they developed in Ethiopia continued after they returned home.
“When we got back, I understood what it meant to be a cohesive offensive line,” said Cofield, who was heading into his sophomore season at the time. “We all knew different things about each other that we didn’t know because we had spent time together in another country.
“It helped me understand what that’s like and why that’s important. Following that trip, we went to our first bowl game since 1994 and the next year, (we went to the) ACC championship and the year after that to another bowl game.”
Cofield also returned with a new personal outlook.
“I went over there open-minded — or what I thought was open-minded — to the experience and when I left, I was counting my blessings,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. That and family. Something (Ethiopians) take a lot of pride in is relationships, so you realize you should cherish relationships with your family and the people who are close to you.
“Material things come and go and shouldn’t necessarily make anybody happy or upset. They can cause some excitement, but outside of that, they shouldn’t be something we invest in heavily. Coming out of that experience, that was one of the biggest things I realized: Cherish the people who you see every day, who invest in you and who you invest in, be close to them and understand that nothing is promised.”
Cofield has yet to appear in a game with the Roughriders this season. He spent the first three weeks of the campaign on the practice roster and then, after being activated, was a healthy scratch in each of the past four games.
On Sunday, he’ll make his CFL debut against the Calgary Stampeders (5 p.m., CKRM, TSN) in place of Terran Vaughn, who has been dealing with an illness.
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The men’s basketball team from Cofield’s alma mater is touring Eastern Canada this week — and the Blue Devils’ games are generating a lot of buzz.
Part of the attraction is the presence on the team of R.J. Barrett, an 18-year-old product of Mississauga, Ont. He and fellow freshman Zion Williamson electrified the crowd in Toronto on Wednesday when Duke played the Ryerson Rams and a similar show is expected Friday when the Blue Devils face the Toronto Varsity Blues.
Cofield is taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the hype.
“I love the talent and love the athletes; we just need a national championship,” said Cofield, whose school has won five NCAA men’s basketball titles — the most-recent of which was claimed in 2015. “We need another one.
“That’s the standard around Duke basketball. If we don’t win national championships, we start to get a little frustrated.”
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Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones sounded a little frustrated at times during Friday’s practice but — unlike a practice in late July — he let the workout continue.
But Jones called the session to a conclusion about 25 minutes before it was scheduled to end, prompting some to wonder if he was unhappy with what he had seen.
Instead, Jones noted that the Roughriders have had an extra day of practice after returning from a bye week, so he shortened the workout.
“We’re going into the second trimester (of the regular season), so we’ll be trimming practices back,” Jones said. “It’s not like we’re trimming an hour off; we’re trimming about 15 or 20 minutes off.”
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The Stampeders entered the week with the league’s top defence in many statistical categories, so the Roughriders know they’ll be facing a stiff test Sunday.
For Collaros, the key to Calgary’s D is the group’s intelligence.
“They pose a great challenge, as they have for every quarterback in this league for a long time,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of guys have winning records against Calgary.
“But we’re really excited for the opportunity and the challenge. We hope that, with playing the best, it brings out our best.
