Ronald Hilaire
Defensive Tackle- Football

Our coaches. Coach Singletary has been a great coach for us. He has taught us some great technique that we haven’t had in the past. He’s been a great mentor and a great teacher. We’ve been going out there and playing harder and we have more confidence since we did a great job last year we carried that over to this year.

2. You are Canadian. Is there a difference in the high school football played in Canada compared to the high school football played in the U.S.?

It’s just a bigger field and one more player on the field. It’s 110 yards by 65 yards instead of 100 yards by 55. So we add a player, but we play with the same rules as over here so that it allows high school players to go to the states. But when you go to university then we play with Canadian rules, you play with three downs, there’s a whole slew of different rules.

3. What did it mean to be named a team captain?

It’s a great honor. When you leave high school you want to go somewhere and make a change and have an impact and being named captain is a great honor so it validates what I wanted to do when I came here. I feel honored that all my teammates voted me as a captain they see me as someone who can play well on the field and say good things off the field as well.

4. You were selected by the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. What did that mean to you?

It was great to have something to fall back on. You always play football to play football as long as you can. And knowing that I got picked up by Calgary allows me to know that when I finish here, that if the NFL doesn’t work out, that I will still be able to play football, and play in Canada, where I grew up, in front of people I know, and probably play with some people I played with in high school because a lot of them went to the states and got drafted by various CFL teams so I’ll be able to play against them again. It’s a good feeling.

5. Your former teammate and defensive linemate Trevor Scott was drafted by the Oakland Raiders. Was that an inspiration to you?

Me and Trevor always had a competition last season. We’d go into games and see who would finish with the most tackles. It’s definitely helped boost me to see that you can make it even coming from a smaller school. And you see a guy like Trevor who has great intensity and a great work ethic and go over there and be able to play his first year, it gives you a boost to think you can do it.

6. The next two games are at home. Talk about the home crowd and how important they are?

They’re the 12th man. Every game that we have a bigger fan base it helps us out on the field. You feel more energized. You want to win for them because they came out to see you and you want to be able to give out the best effort and the best game you can to thank them for coming to the game and supporting us.

7. Do you model yourself after any particular football player?

He doesn’t play anymore but Warren Sapp was the guy I always looked up to. He was just a beast. Being named NFL defensive MVP one year as a d-tackle…you always look to a guy like that and try to model your game. He’s kind of my size so I kind of always wanted to be like that.

8. What is more entertaining the NFL or the CFL?

Point wise I would say the CFL because it’s a passing league, there’s a lot more points in the CFL, but I would have to go to the NFL. It’s just a bigger market and every game is important.

9. What do you like to do when you’re not playing football?

Video games, movies…just taking it easy and relaxing because football takes up so much of your time you just want to get some down time and relax.

10. What has been your favorite moment at UB?

The overtime win against Kent State, when we clinched that MAC-East co-championship. That was just step one. This year we want to go a lot further and get the share for ourselves and go to the MAC championship and go to a bowl game. Last year that game was pretty intense.

The “10 questions with…” feature is compiled by Erin Dengler.

10/03/2008