“Home will always be home.” | Demski enjoying the journey

Nic Demski is waiting patiently, plunked down on a concrete floor just outside the University of Manitoba Bisons dressing room as a host of Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates and coaches go through the media rounds of one interview after another.

Approached by yours truly – with an apology for making him wait – Demski grins, shrugs and adds, “It’s all good, man. All good.”

That’s a phrase, interestingly enough, that just seems to perfectly fit the 25-year old Winnipegger right now, what with the Bombers preparing for Sunday’s Western Final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and two victories shy of immortality in this town.

Things are indeed ‘all good’ for Demski, who once called that Bisons locker room home after his days with the Oak Park Raiders and Charleswood Broncos as a youngster with big football dreams.

He is coming off a Western Semi-Final performance in Calgary that included a spectacular one-handed grab and three rushes for 53 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown rush that drew praise from the TSN crew calling the game and from his boss, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea.

“I told him I thought he had one of the better games I’ve seen him play,” O’Shea said Thursday. “He was really dynamic, he was fast and he was tough. I just thought he had a terrific game. We’ll see if he can’t string a few of those together.”

Demski’s evolution has unfolded right in front of everyone’s eyes over the past couple of seasons. A first-round draft pick of the Riders in 2015, he didn’t truly blossom until signing with the Bombers as a free agent in 2018. Over the last two seasons he has pulled in 103 passes for 1,097 yards and six touchdowns, while rushing 60 times for 395 yards and three more scores.

And there’s the very real sense he’s still got much more to give.

“He’s maintained that level of athleticism, but there’s obviously been growth in terms of his knowledge of the game,” O’Shea explained. “I thought he was a good pro coming in, but there’s always room for improvement and there’s a bit more pressure on himself to be a leader. I think he wants to have a bit more of that role of making sure he’s getting everyone around him doing the right thing. That’s been very positive.”

But it hasn’t always been easy. Demski, like many Canadian college players, needed some time to make the transition to the professional level and come to understand the importance of all the things that make that up, from diet, to training, to studying the game.

“I remember in my rookie year getting handed a playbook and I didn’t really know where to start with it or what any of the verbiage meant,” said Demski. “Now I pride myself in trying to have a high football I.Q., but I struggled with that in my first year. That first off-season was more of a mental one than a physical one for me because of that.

“I really believe it’s night and day for me as a player from when I started in Saskatchewan to even last year to Winnipeg to this year. I’m a lot more confident in this offence and a lot more confident in myself, based on that I.Q.

“You know, I still remember some those games from Oak Park and Manitoba like they were yesterday,” he added. “It’s just a reminder to yourself of what it was like when you were at that elite status. You bring it back and remind yourself that you are at a high level, but why can’t you do those same things at this level, too?”

Demski will tell you he wasn’t a diehard Bombers fan growing up here in Winnipeg, but instead, was more a fan of individual players. He lists Milt Stegall, Charles Roberts and Fred Reid as his favourite Bombers, but also regularly hunkered down to watch some of his other Canadian Football League favourites, including Jamel Richardson during his days with the Montreal Alouettes, and Chris Williams when he first broke into the league with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Now Demski is becoming more and more recognizable by fans in his hometown as a member of the Bombers. And, if as Mike O’Shea suggests, he can string another game like last Sunday together, he could inch the franchise closer to ending a long drought.

“I think about that, of course I do,” said Demski with a grin. “It’s something you dream about as a player. The first goal I write down at the start of the season is you want to win a Grey Cup, you want to be a champion.

“I’m sure the local guys on this team have grown up thinking about it and are thinking about it now. But you also kind of have to erase that two-three days before the game. We’ve always said it here, ‘Be 1-0 at the end of every week’ and so I just try and keep myself locked in place and in the moment with that.

“Still, it’s been amazing talking to fans over the last little while. You hear the excitement from them and it just goes to remind you how passionate fans are here and it makes you want it even that much more.

“People know I love it here and home will always be home. That’s why it would be next level to bring a Grey Cup here and have everyone in this city, in this province, enjoy it. That would be a dream.”