Spirit of Service: Farhan Lalji helps turns boys into young men | The Vancouver Sun

As a journalist, Lalji, 46, is now known to millions of Canadian football, and other, viewers. He covers the Canadian Football League, National Football League and the National Hockey League, as well as the Olympics. His Twitter account has 45,000 followers.

But, just as importantly, when the crisp days of late summer and fall have arrived over each of the past 11 years, Lalji has been spending almost as much time running the Hyacks football team (about 40 hours a week) as he does in his high-profile career at TSN.

For his service to football and young males, Lalji has twice been named runner-up for NFL National High School Coach of the year. And in 2012 he was celebrated as New Westminster’s Citizen of the Year.

TSN journalist Farhan Lalji works with boys as coach of the New Westminster Hyacks. “Many young boys don’t have life skills. Even the brightest ones, who get good grades, often speak in monosyllables and ‘uh-huhs,’" he says. "They don’t know how to express themselves. So we do a lot of leadership training.” (Image: The Vancouver Sun)
TSN journalist Farhan Lalji works with boys as coach of the New Westminster Hyacks. “Many young boys don’t have life skills. Even the brightest ones, who get good grades, often speak in monosyllables and ‘uh-huhs,’” he says. “They don’t know how to express themselves. So we do a lot of leadership training.” (Image: The Vancouver Sun)

December 27, 2014. 9:04 am

Farhan Lalji became devoted to football on Christmas Day — and thousands of New Westminster boys are grateful.

As one of the most popular sports journalists in Canada, as well as the longtime head coach of the New Westminster Secondary School’s Hyacks football team, Lalji remembers how left out he felt on Christmas Day as a youngster.

Arriving in Canada from Tanzania when he was four, the boy who would later go on to become Vancouver correspondent for TSN’s SportsCentre was raised in a devout Ismaili Muslim home in Burnaby. He attended mosque (which Ismailis call “jamatkhana”) five days a week.

Even though Lalji remains proud of his immigrant Ismaili parents, as a boy he felt they just “didn’t get Canadian society.” And he wanted to fit in.

“On December 25th I got nothing. It sucked,” Lalji says.

“As a boy my Christmas Day was spent watching two college football games from the U.S. That’s when I picked up an affinity for football, which led to playing it in high school. And the passion has lasted until this day.”

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TSN journalist Farhan Lalji works with boys as coach of the New Westminster Hyacks. “Many young boys don’t have life skills. Even the brightest ones, who get good grades, often speak in monosyllables and ‘uh-huhs,’" he says. "They don’t know how to express themselves. So we do a lot of leadership training.” (Image: The Vancouver Sun) Spirit of Service: Farhan Lalji helps turns boys into young men | The Vancouver Sun
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  1. Farhan exemplifies the spirit of seva that exists in the Ismaili Muslim community. In addition, the article also points out that divergence of religious identity from that of his ancestors that can occur in first generation immigrants.

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