NCAA rivals unite as teammates at St. Clair College

Hunter Hall and Jake Schuh faced off four times as NCAA rivals — Hall out of a California program, Schuh out of Washington. Their first real interaction was a facemask penalty Hall drew against Schuh.

Hall and Schuh at practice at Acumen Stadium

Neither expected to end up teammates. A former St. Clair Saint and All-Canadian lineman — a onetime teammate of Schuh's — put in a word for both players, telling coaches about Hall from playing against him and passing along Schuh's number as well.

The connection ran both ways. That same former teammate — a onetime right tackle for the Saints who's now playing overseas in Finland — had faced Hall three or four times in college and vouched for him directly to the coaching staff.

On Schuh's end, the introduction wasn't a surprise so much as a scouting report: he'd already been living with a former offensive lineman who'd played against Hall, and asked him point blank how Hall had fared. The answer was enough to tell Schuh what kind of player was headed to Windsor with him.

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"It's cool — an opportunity to be totally against each other, and now we get to work with each other," Hall told Powerplay Windsor. "We're both coming from America, so we bond on that."

Hall wasted little time making an impact, earning OFC Defensive Player of the Week in his Saints debut — 11 tackles, six solo and five assisted, plus a sack and a half by the stat sheet.

"I'm blessed. I got a pretty dominant start," Hall said. "I'm hoping to make it my goal to get it every single week."

Schuh said the welcome from the program has made the transition easy.

"The guys here have been super welcoming, the coaches too," Schuh told Powerplay Windsor. "It's been a really awesome experience."