Attending the Grey Cup game isn’t as easy as it sounds. Just ask Nick and Antonietta Zema.
The parents of Montreal Alouettes Australian kicker Joseph Zema were due to arrive from Melbourne on Thursday, after making stops in Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto.
“It’s a long trip. But I’m looking forward to seeing them,” said Zema, whose wife and son are also due to arrive Saturday from Texas.
Zema’s path to the CFL was even more winding than his parents’. The former Australian rules footballer, who reached the semi-pro ranks, looked to North America and its many versions of the game before joining “ProKick Australia,” a program for aspiring kickers looking to carve out a niche in the college ranks.
“I was trying to find another outlet,” Zema said. “I was too old to be drafted (by the Australian Football League), so I turned to ProKick Australia, which pointed me in the right direction.”
He was at a crossroads, having graduated with a degree in sport and exercise science from the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.
“I had a choice between going through the ProKick Australia process and learning how to kick a football or retiring and getting a job in an office,” he recalled. “I’m very happy with the decision I made.”
He then joined the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. The school, which operates under the Southland Association, was founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who originally came to Texas to fight a cholera epidemic.
In his only year of eligibility, in 2017, Zema served as a kicker for the school team.
“It’s been a whirlwind, to be honest,” he said. “I knew I was going there in July, and I think it was August 4 or 5, if I’m not mistaken, I got to San Antonio and within two weeks I was playing in front of 40,000 people at Fresno State University Stadium.
Zema attracted attention from his first kicks, even making a 75-yard punt. He finished the season with an average of 46.7 yards per punt, and 31 of his 77 attempts went 50 yards or more.
He was named to the Southland Association All-Star team after pushing the opposing team back inside their line 20-20 times.
“It was a great experience, and it changed my life, to be honest. And for the better,” he continued of his academic career.
After college, he attended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ mini-training camp and the New York Jets’ mini-training camp in 2018, before earning a tryout with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2019, he played for the San Antonio Commanders of the now-defunct Alliance of American Football.
Zema was eventually selected seventh overall in the 2021 CFL International Draft, becoming one of four Australian kickers to go in the first round.
The Calgary Stampeders (Cody Grace), Saskatchewan Roughriders (Adam Korsak), Toronto Argonauts (John Haggerty) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Jamieson Sheahan) also have an Australian kicker in their ranks.
“I think they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeve,” Blue Bombers special teams coach Paul Boudreau said of the effects the Australian kickers can put on the ball.
Zema, who is 29, has taken up residence with the Birds, and he takes the metro regularly.
“It reminds me a little bit of Melbourne, with all the restaurants and the cafes… It’s nice to be able to spend six months here working,” he said. “You don’t feel like you have to work. I really fell in love with Montreal.”
He lives in Texas during the off-season. That’s where he met his wife, Ariana, six years ago. A teacher, she spends June and July with Zema in Montreal.
The rest of the season, their relationship is a long distance one.
Zema, in his third season with the Alouettes, and kicker David Côté provide the Alouettes with a formidable tandem. Zema also trapped the Argonauts deep in their territory for most of the Eastern Conference final on November 10.
