Tull launches next stage of career
author: john loeppky | sports editor
Next stop: Europe/Arthur Ward
Former Cougar looking to play abroad
Unlike some top-flight American collegiate programs, CIS schools don’t see their purpose as being breeding grounds for professional players. There are no one-and-done athletes in the CIS. That’s why, when an athlete comes along who does have a legitimate chance at getting paid for competing, their story tends to rocket to the top. Jonathan Tull is one of those athletes.
The now former Cougar guard was recently part of a mini documentary chronicling his career’s trajectory. The film, “Jonathan Tull: The Journey” tracks his movement from Ontario’s Pickering High School, to the NCAA’s Central Connecticut State, all the way through two CIS stops at Acadia University and here at the University of Regina.
The piece was crafted by Saskatchewan’s own Next Level Media, and it’s a project that Tull says was exciting to be a part of.
“It was a bit different because I had never done anything like that before. I would always see certain documentaries upon players that I look up to and I thought it was pretty cool, so when he [Tanner Goetz from Next Level Media] brought the idea to me, I was pretty excited.”
The film is not just a case of an athlete trying to get more exposure after their collegiate career has concluded, Tull insists, but a movie that can send a message to younger players looking to be successful in sport.
“I thought that the message that it would send to whoever is watching would be a positive message, just for student-athletes and what we endure with school and our sports.”
With his time in the green-and-gold firmly behind him, Tull’s next step is to attempt to gain employment overseas.
“As far as my goal in playing professional basketball, which right now is pretty realistic with me signing under Basketball Beyond Boarders, that’s the agency I’m with. So, as of right now I’m pretty much training just for that and hopefully things work out.”
While the number of athletes who transition to professional sports from the CIS is a tiny minority, Jonathan says that he is not going in blind.
