His teammates talk about his contagious enthusiasm often. Heck, even his head coach spun a yarn about the pure joie de vivre Celestin Haba brings to work every day.
It’s infectious and that absolute joy — he’s the kind of guy you hear long before he enters a room — was obvious when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive end returned to practice this week after a long stint on the injured list with a knee injury.
And so, to be back on the field feels like…?
“It feels like Christmas,” began Haba with a massive grin after practice Wednesday. “It feels like my birthday — my birthday is in three days (on Friday) — so this is my birthday present to be out here playing with my teammates, to be out here with my coaches playing football.
“Being around the guys gives me a different kind of energy. It’s a pleasure to be out here, I’m grateful to be out here because I could be anywhere else right now. To be out here, I’m honoured. When I’m not out here with them I almost feel like I have no purpose. Then when I’m out here everything comes together. I’m with the guys. I’m with the coaches and everything feels real, if that makes sense.
“That’s the power of being on a team — especially in Winnipeg and especially with the Blue Bombers.”
Haba could be back in action this Sunday in Vancouver when the Blue Bombers face the B.C. Lions to start the second half of the Canadian Football League season. Defensive coordinator Jordan Younger described the Texas A&M Commerce product as ‘twitchy’ and ‘sudden’ and those are ideal traits for an end trying to bring pressure and be stout at the line of scrimmage.
Haba would be a welcome part of a defensive-end rotation that features Willie Jefferson, TyJuan Garbutt and Owen Hubert as part of the emerging force that is the Blue Bombers defence.
What he also brings — just to hammer this home — is energy.
“He’s one of those guys that from Day 1 has been excited to be a part of it,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “It’s more than that… it’s even hard to describe. I’ll be in my office and I’ll hear him coming down the hallway and I’ll stop what I’m doing and just can’t wait for him to pass by my office because he’s going to poke his head in and say something and it always makes me feel good in terms of, this is fun, this is why we’re here because we’re having a good time doing it.
“He’s a joyful person. We’ve got a bunch of those guys. It’s fun to be around. He’s just a funny dude and he brings it to work every day.”
Haba injured his knee in the loss in Ottawa in June and was then in full grind mode just to get back to practice, let alone a game. O’Shea mentioned after practice that teammates saw his work and that’s also part of why they were uplifted when he was back at his post earlier in the week.
This was supposed to be Haba’s bust-out season — hell, there’s still half of a season left to make it so — and while missing time could be a downer, the 24-year-old Columbia, S.C. product is, not surprisingly, looking at it in a positive manner.
“There’s a saying my granddad used to say, ‘you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone,’” said Haba. “So, once that was taken away from me for the last two months is was like, ‘Damn, I’d rather be on the field than doing anything I’m doing right now.’ I took it day it day by day — it was kind of a struggle mentally — but at the end of the day I knew I was going to come back, I just didn’t know when.
“Once I came back my eyes lit up. The day before I was told I could practice I was praying, I was excited… looking at old game film, looking at the recent gae when we beat B.C. I was just amped up. I almost couldn’t sleep.
“I stayed here during the bye week and I was like, ‘I can’t wait for everybody to come back.’”
STEP RIGHT UP: The depth chart won’t be official until Saturday, but WR Lucky Whitehead has seen his kick-returning workload amp up during practice.
O’Shea on whether we could see the veteran returner take over that role for Kody Case this week:
“We’ll see. He’s done it before, he’s scored. He’s got good vision and his ability to use his blockers is pretty damn good, too. We really like what we saw from Kody, too.
“We’ve got a bunch of good guys — especially at that position group (receiver). We’ve got a bunch of good guys we really like that bring a lot to the table. They all seem very eager to learn, very focussed in meetings. They ask good questions, they take good notes. We feel good about a lot of them. We’ve talked about this over and over and over again: that receiver group that came in is pretty fun to be around.”
And Whitehead when asked Wednesday where he’s at in the return department:
“The same place I started. I mean, that’s where I started my career at. It’s like riding a bike. I’m ready to go. I said this when I got here — whenever my time comes, I’m going to be ready, whatever that looks like.
“Returning punts is fun. I like the attention. Everybody knows where the ball is going, everybody knows who is getting the ball so… big play.”
FYI: K Sergio Castillo has not been at practice the last two days as he was excused due to a family matter, but should be good to go Sunday in Vancouver.
FOOTBALL MANITOBA HALL OF FAME: A plug for the Football Manitoba Hall of Fame Banquet being held August 21st at the Pinnacle Club at Princess Auto Stadium. This year’s inductees include Al Bradbury, Ted Milian, Andrew Harris, Rich Urbanovich, Dr. Ed Pilat, Andrea Backlund, Brian Marks, Neville Scarlett, Corey Hannsen and in the team category the 2011- 2014 St. Paul’s Crusaders.
Tickets for the event are still available — $135 each — and can be found on the Football Manitoba website.