After a banner senior season, Vincent Massey Collegiate’s Jackson Tachinski will head to university as a rare multi-sport athlete.
Tachinski is committing to his hometown Manitoba Bisons in football and basketball after the quarterback/guard helped the Trojans win championships in both sports this past season.
“I wanted two rings,” Tachinski said. “And I wanted to go out on top with both teams, in both sports.”
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The 18-year-old was wrestling with the decision of which sport to pursue at the next level, but ended up finding a university that will let him play both as a two-sport athlete.
“They’re really excited to have me, and I’m really excited to start working with them,” Tachinski said. “It’s gonna be a lot of hard work, but I think I can pull it off.”
“It’s not going to be an easy task,” Trojans basketball head coach Nick Lother said. “But if there’s someone that can do it, it’s him.”
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And while it will be a bit of a juggling act between football, basketball, and his studies, Tachinski just wants to continue playing both sports.
“That’s why I couldn’t give up one,” he said. “Cause I just love them both so much, and I’m gonna try to ride both of them as long as I can.”
Tachinski will be the first two-sport athlete in team sports with the Bisons in more than a decade. But athletics run in his blood with his big brother Xander playing football for the McMaster Marauders, while his older sister Victoria is running track at Penn State.
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“Being the youngest out of four siblings – always beating me up and everything when I was younger, it definitely pushed me to do bigger things,” Tachinski said. “It’s hard living up to their standards, cause they’re amazing athletes as well.”
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