Trey Vaval captured two awards Thursday night; photos by Cameron Bartlett
Less than a year ago Trey Vaval was a football nomad searching for a team to call his own. Fast forward to the present and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers kick returner/cornerback is now a burgeoning Canadian Football League star and double Most Outstanding Player Award winner.
Vaval was named both the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player and Most Outstanding Rookie Thursday night at the Club Regent Casino Event Centre, capping a sensational debut season in which he established himself as one of the league’s most dangerous kick returners and flashed his potential as a cornerback.
The voting was conducted by members of the Football Reporters of Canada and the nine head coaches, with Vaval collecting 40 of a possible 53 votes to win the special teams award over Toronto Argonauts kicker Lirim Hajrullahu and 36 votes to earn top rookie honours over Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker Devin Veresuk.
“Last year I wasn’t even on a team,” said Vaval, who was signed by the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent last year but cut at the conclusion of training camp. “I was just at home with my family working out and waiting on an opportunity. Getting to camp, I was just trying to make the team. So, this happening… this wasn’t my front view. I just wanted to make the team and be a part of the team and just play football and do what I love.
“This wasn’t something I was even looking forward to.”
Vaval signed with the Blue Bombers on Valentine’s Day, earned a roster spot in training camp and quickly began making an impact. He led the CFL with four kick-return touchdowns this season — two via kickoff returns, one on a punt and a fourth on a missed field goal — while also finishing first in punt return yardage and missed field goal return yardage and fifth in kickoff return yardage.
His 391 yards on missed field goal returns established a new Blue Bombers record in that department and his 128-yard missed field goal return vs. Ottawa in September was the longest in club history. On top of that, in a home win over Toronto on August 1st he became the first player in team history to return a punt and a kickoff for a touchdown in the same game.
He becomes just the third Blue Bomber to win two CFL Most Outstanding Player Awards in the same season, joining Brady Oliveira from 2024 (Most Outstanding Player/Most Outstanding Canadian) and Albert Johnson III in 2000 (Most Outstanding Rookie/Most Outstanding Special Teams Player).
ICYMI, here is Vaval’s inspirational story we posted from earlier. in the week:
And asked what made it work for him this year, Vaval repeated the same things he said all season — everything he did on game day, during practice and off the field, he did for his brothers in the Blue Bombers locker room.
“It’s the team, the family environment,” said Vaval, whose mom Lori Grove and sister Tie’re Spearman came up from Missouri to be with him on awards night. “The coaches, the players, all of us, we just love each other. We have fun every day. We didn’t feel like we were going to work — this s–t was fun as hell. We wake up and the first thing I get to do is be in the hot tub. I get to kick it with some of my best friends; the coaches I’m super-cool with… Coach Osh (Mike O’Shea), Coach JY (Jordan Younger), we’re all super cool.
“That environment… you get around a bunch of dudes like that and it’s just easy to play for each other. You’re willing to sacrifice your body, everything for them.”
Vaval is the eighth Blue Bomber to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie, joining Dalton Schoen (2022), Chris Matthews (2012); Gavin Walls (2005), Albert Johnson III (2000), Michael Richardson (1992), William Miller (1980) and Joe Poplawski (1978).
He’s also the fifth Blue Bomber to be named the league’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, along with Justin Medlock (2016), Keith Stokes (2004), Charles Roberts (2001) and Albert Johnson III (2000).
Also honoured on Thursday were B.C. Lions quarterback — another double award winner — as he was saluted as the CFL Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian, teammate Mathieu Betts was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player while former Blue Bomber/current Saskatchewan Roughrider right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick was named the Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.
Lions O-lineman Andrew Peirson was named the winner of the prestigious Canadian Football League Players’ Association Tom Pate Memorial Award, presented to a player ‘with outstanding sportsmanship and someone who has made a significant contribution to his team, his community and Association.’
Winning the Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award was Saskatchewan offensive lineman Logan Ferland, a five-year veteran and the 15th player to win the award since its inception in 2010. The award recognizes a Canadian player who ‘best demonstrates the attributes of Canada’s Veterans – strength, perseverance, courage, comradeship and contribution to Canadian communities. The late Jake Gaudaur – a distinguished Veteran of the Second World War and the longest-serving Commissioner in CFL history – embodied these qualities through his service to the country and the Canadian football community.’
