Familiar territory: Boersma sticking around Regina after Riders draft Rams receiver

Riley Boersma had said goodbye to the friends he made during his time at the University of Regina as he went home to Ontario to watch the CFL draft.

But the results of it saw the U of R Rams receiver making a U-turn: The Saskatchewan Roughriders selected him with their final pick in Tuesday’s draft. He went in the eighth round, 72nd overall.

“I said bye to all my roommates I had been living with for the four years and I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know when I’ll see you guys again,’ and I packed a bunch of my stuff to come back to Ontario,” Boersma said Wednesday. “They called me (Tuesday) night and said, ‘Oh, I guess you’re not leaving after all.’

“It’s kind of like when you say bye to someone and then you’re walking in the same direction as them.”

While the product of Cambridge, Ont., had a feeling he would get drafted to the CFL, it wasn’t an easy journey to get there. He had to deal with losing a season with the Rams due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But that might have put Boersma back on the path to eventually going to the pros.

“I think that year reminded me how much I loved football and coming back this year, it was exciting,” Boersma said.

In his three seasons with the Rams, Boersma caught 39 passes for 763 yards and six touchdowns.

The work he put in during the season and at the CFL’s regional combine led to him getting an invite to the national combine.

But a week before the combine, Boersma woke up suffering from an attack of appendicitis.

“It wasn’t ruptured but I was in extreme pain so I went and got it checked out. It was getting worse throughout the day. I got a CT scan and then the nurse came up to me and said that, ‘Normally in this situation, we give people surgery,’ ” Boersma recalled. “I said, ‘I can’t really have surgery right now.’

“The surgeon came out and I told him my situation and he said, ‘Oh, we usually do surgery because you probably need to have surgery in three or four years eventually anyway, so we usually do it right away. But we can just put you on some antibiotics.’ ”

Boersma took full advantage of the chance he was given at the combine, posting the second-fastest 40-yard dash time (4.49 seconds), tying for the highest vertical jump (40.5 inches) and recording the third-longest broad jump (10 feet 6 5/8 inches).

But while he tested well at the combine, it didn’t make his draft night wait short.

“A couple of mock drafts had me going (in the) fourth or fifth round and I talked to pretty much every team but you still have no clue where you’re going to go,” Boersma said. “I went into it really optimistic …

“Another round goes by and another round goes by and I just thought, ‘I might not get drafted here.’ I had to stop looking at my phone because I was getting tense.”

But a text from Rams teammate Ryder Varga finally eased his nerves.

Varga, who was drafted by the B.C. Lions 29th overall, texted Boersma and said he saw the Riders had taken the receiver.

“It was relieving to see but it was definitely really stressful,” Boersma said.

Boersma will now get ready to take part in rookie camp, which begins on May 11 in Saskatoon. For him, it’s the next step in accomplishing something he has dreamed about for years.

“It still seems surreal to me,” Boersma said. “To finally hear your name called is just really incredible and kind of hard to believe right away.”