'I'm living out my dream right now' – homegrown Nic Demski relishing Blue Bombers November playoff football

Nic Demski is no stranger to the game when it comes to Winnipeg playoff football in November. The hometown Winnipeg Blue Bombers veteran wide receiver has had championship aspirations since joining the team in 2018.

Six full regular seasons in, he’s helped deliver two Grey Cup championships to the place he calls home and has been a part of bringing the Blue Bombers to their sixth straight appearance in the CFL West Division Final.

“I always say, you know, I'm living out my dream right now; I'm blessed,” Demski said, reflecting on the current season.

Princess Auto Stadium will host the CFL West Division Final for the fourth straight year thanks to some late game heroics in the Bombers final regular season game against the Montreal Alouettes.

A back and forth tilt between the two clubs with some assistance from the weather on a game winning field goal kick from Sergio Castillo helped the Bombers notch a 28-27 victory against the Alouettes.

'I mean, the CFL, it's a crazy game; you never know what's going to happen in the last three minutes'

Demski, who is set to turn 31 in December, said he has never experienced an ending to a game like any previously now in his ninth CFL season.

“I mean, the CFL, it's a crazy game; you never know what's going to happen in the last three minutes,” Demski said.

“Just the way that wind picked up out of nowhere. I mean, you know, Mother Nature was definitely on our side. So thank you.”

For the first time in his career as a Bomber, Demski played all 18 regular season games and led the team in receiving yards (1,030). It’s a number that placed Demski eighth among all receivers in the CFL for receiving yards and a personal best for his time with the blue and gold.

Nic Demski has just completed his sixth regular season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Joining the team in 2018, the veteran slotback and two-time Grey Cup Champion with the Bombers has notched 5,284 receiving yards and 35 touchdowns over his nine seasons in the CFL. The hometown fan favourite is all smiles after practice on Friday Nov. 1, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

Demski said his individual drive is fueled by the teammates he’s built relationships with over the last six seasons.

“I know the role that I have on my shoulders and to go out and be a playmaker for this team,” Demski said.

“I just try to be the explosive player that I am for these guys. That drives always going to kind of be there within me. At the end of the day, you know, I play for my brothers.”

Demski’s ability to make explosive plays as an athlete are aspects of the game his former coaches and mentors have admired for years.

Recently retired University of Manitoba Bisons Football Coach, Brian Dobie, recalled his time scouting Demski’s high school Oak Park Raiders in the 2009 Winnipeg High School Football League AAA championship game against the St. Paul Crusaders.

'He's singularly the most explosive player in the CFL'

Dobie said what he saw 15 years ago on the field has never left Demski’s game today.

“He's singularly the most explosive player in the CFL,” Dobie said.

“Nick scored all six touchdowns. One of them looked like he was shot out of a cannon from his own one-yard line. We were blown away sitting in the press box, watching.”

After coaching Demski during four of his 29 seasons with the Bisons, Dobie finished his final year with the University of Manitoba last Saturday in a close defeat to the University of Regina Rams in the Canada West Final with a score of 28-25.

After coaching football in Manitoba since 1975, Dobie thought about the reasons he continued to live the life of the game for so long, recalling the future Canadian players who have gone on to have success like Demski.

“I thought to myself, 'What are we really in it for? For the right reasons.” Dobie said.

“We're in it to give people opportunities to bring out the best in people, to move people through passing their lives. To help make these so-called players better people, that's why we're here, and that's why they're here.”

Demski said at a very young age, his love for everything on the gridiron led to him chasing the game of football.

“I loved football from the second I started playing it,” Demski said.

“My second year, you know, it's kind of probably when I hit my true stride, and that was probably when I started making the goal of becoming a pro football player. It's kind of crazy to say that because I was probably only about eight years old, that was just always a dream of mine.”

Demski said his competitive nature grew exponentially when he joined the Oak Park Raiders high school football program.

Under then head coach Stu Nixon, the future Bombers receiver was given the opportunity to expand his offensive versatility, learning the skills to lead as a slotback, the playbook as a quarterback, and building his strength as a running back, which would go on to impress scouts for his future at the University of Manitoba.

“Just to kind of get the opportunities, you know, you just learn obviously what adversity is at such a young age and learn how to overcome everything and learn how to get better with whatever situation gets thrown your way,” Demski said.

“I'm thankful for high school football and for all the opportunities I got.”

Demski said the standard that he and future Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates Andrew Harris and Brady Oliveira were held to by Nixon all put the Charleswood school on the map as the place to grow their game.

Nixon, now working as a school trustee for the Pembina Trails School Division, retired from teaching in 2022 after a 35-year career, 20 of those years coaching at Oak Park.

'I'd like to think that we developed a love of the game of football within the kids’ hearts'

He said Demski’s great hand-eye coordination, sense of the field, and dedication to the game made him a very valuable athlete to train.

“It's a grind; it's a 12-month-a-year commitment to working your butt off,” Nixon said.

“If you don't develop that work ethic at an early age, it's going to be too late. I'd like to think that we developed a love of the game of football within the kids’ hearts.”

During team practice, Nic Demski looks onward as Winnipeg Blue Bombers backup quarterback Terry Wilson hands off the ball to fellow Oak Park High School alumnus Brady Oliveira. Demski and Oliveira both grew up attending the Charleswood high school and were members of the Raiders football program. This practice took place on Friday Nov. 1, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

Dobie laughed, recalling taking credit for Demski’s success in his first season with the Bisons, developing plays for the high school running back into a player who could take on the role of slotback, which he plays today.

“We talked about it as a staff and said, 'Look, you've been a running back your whole life, Nic. Here's what we want to do; we want to move you to inside receiver’,” Dobie said.

“We want to be able to use you as a receiver, where you're going to be scary, but also, we will be able to put in packages where we can motion move the end of the backfield. Boom. You’re a receiver who’s really a running back. It's exactly what Buck Pierce has done with Nic.”

The first Bison to be named to four Canadian Interuniversity Sport all-star teams has now accumulated 5,284 yards and 35 touchdowns in the CFL through nine regular seasons.

Many of those touchdowns have been the result of a connection with Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros, who joined the team ahead of the Blue and Gold’s 2019 Grey Cup championship run.

The chemistry the two continue to share on the field has built success for years.

“I'm pretty sure everybody knows how I feel about him; once he signed a three-year deal, I’m like, 'Let me sign a three-year deal,'” Demski said as he laughed.

“Just the preparation part, to see that guy, how he prepares and how you watch his film and how he tries to dissect the defense and his little cues on picking up coverages, I've definitely taken a lot of that from his game; he's a great football mind.”

Zach Collaros (left), and Nic Demski have been Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates since the tail end of the 2019 CFL Season. The two would help bring the Bombers a Grey Cup Championship that season which had not been seen for 29 years. Here they are discussing the offense during a team practice on Friday Nov. 1, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

After a 2-6 start to the regular season, the Bombers flipped the script, finishing 11-7 ahead of their CFL West Division Final matchup against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Demski said the resilience of this year’s squad overcoming the adversity of some of those tough regular season losses has got them motivated for Saturday.

“I think it was just sticking to our guns; you know, I mean, a lot of other teams probably would have folded, would have panicked a little bit,” Demski said.

“We learned a lot about ourselves, just that we can hang in there and that we can win football games and learn how to finish football games. We had a good couple last days of practice. We’re ready to go on and take on this November playoff football.”

Playing in front of a sold-out crowd on Saturday is always an extra motivator for the hometown favourite.

“What we're doing right now for the city, I think we're making a lot of young Bomber fans out there,” Demski said.

“I think it's a rare thing to have guys who are excelling at their sport being homegrown talent. To be where I am right now, you know, I'm thankful for sure.”

Kickoff for the CFL West Division Final at Princess Auto Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 9, is set for 5:30 p.m.