The Ticats will be heading to Winnipeg tomorrow for their final pre-season game. One of the rookies expected to make the team is Jonathan Langa, a linebacker out of St. Mary’s in Halifax. Langa gained some notoriety when he was one of 5 CIS athletes to test positive for performance enhancing drugs at the CFL combines in March. Langa agreed to a 4 year ban but will enter the CFL with a clean slate. Natalie Marconi has the story.

The Ticat’s preseason game against Ottawa was the first chance for players, primarily rookies, to prove themselves worthy of a roster spot.

And, Friday night’s game in Winnipeg will be their second, and last chance, before final cuts are made on Saturday.

2015 draft pick Jonathan Langa knows all about “second chances”. Even though he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and was banned from the CIS for four years, Kent Austin selected him anyway.

“It was a truly honest mistake.” Says Langa “I’ve tried to put it behind me and move forward…”

While playing for St. Mary’s, the Etobicoke native won the 2014 president’s trophy as Canada’s most outstanding defensive player. He was also the Atlantic Conference’s leading tackler, with 62 solo tackles and an average of ten per game.

It was during the CFL combine in March, that he tested positive for the same anabolic steroid that Ben Johnson was found guilty of using during the Seoul Olympics.

“Just a bunch of stuff I was taking, I didn’t know what it was, honestly, so I couldn’t tell you what it was.”

At training camp, Langa has performed well, and at one point today he was actually told to “slow down” running special teams plays. He appears poised to make the team, but if he does he’ll have one strike against him — another positive drug test would get him banned for three games.

“He’s done really well, he’s been excellent in meetings…on the field, off the field, and he’s had a good camp. He’s a good young man” says Coach Kent Austin.