Kevin Tawil

And yeah, Bobby Orr was a superstar then.

But soccer was really my passion.

Started playing when I was 12 and immediately took to it.

It was a growing sport then in Canada and certainly in North America generally.

And I feel like I learned a lot of lessons through my experience with soccer, both as a player and being coached by amazing coaches along the way.

So a lot of lessons learned.

I ended up playing for my high school team, local club teams, our provincial Canada games team.

And it was also an important thread through university because it was one of the key reasons I ended up going to McGill University.

McGill had just won two back-to-back national championships.

So that was exciting for me.

I was a walk-on player in 1983 and I made the team and that was just a huge accomplishment.

I don't know if I'd say a huge accomplishment, but I had grown up in this small pond and I was this big fish in a small pond.

Then I had come to Montreal and McGill and nobody knew me.

Nobody knew who I was.

So to sort of make it on my own without reputation behind me was super exciting and exhilarating.

I spent five years there at McGill taking a mechanical engineering degree.

What position in soccer, by the way?

I was center midfield.

I'm not sure I played defense or offense particularly well, but I was able to distribute the ball quite effectively.

Actually, my first year at McGill was spectacular and truly formational for me, not just from an athletic perspective, but from a mindset and business perspective.