DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor

Looking at Huskies basketball player Trevor Nerdahl, you probably wouldn’t surmise that the easygoing guard had been a graveyard digger once.

Nerdahl just wrapped up his Canadian Interuniversity Sport career following the Huskies’ bronze medal loss to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. But prior to joining the Huskies he had toiled amongst the tombstones of a Vancouver cemetery.

For three years Nerdahl worked at the Alleyview Memorial Graveyard in Surrey, B.C. As morbid as the occupation sounds, Nerdahl said it paid his bills while he was a student at Trinity Western University. At the time, Nerdahl had been playing for the Trinity Western Spartans, the same team that faced off in the CIS Final 8 gold medal match with the Carleton Ravens.

At $26 an hour, the job helped him cope with the extravagant expenses that come along with a university degree. Nerdahl’s not some macabre maniac obsessed with the deceased — for him it was simple economics.

Working in a graveyard in the worst of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods made for some eccentric sights.

“You see a lot of weird things and meet a lot of weird people. There’d be drug addicts walking through all the time. You’d see people doing some weird worshipping satanic things at the graves sometimes,” said Nerdahl.

Due to the physical demands of being a gravedigger, the job triggered bulging discs in his lower back that are constant reminders of his previous employment.

Nerdahl, who played for the Spartans from 2005 to 2007, was happy his former team had clinched their first berth ever to a CIS gold medal bout. However, he indicated nothing in the world would have altered his decision in becoming a Huskie — claiming Saskatchewan’s first-ever national basketball championship last year was priceless.

A year later, however, Nerdahl was sorrowed at the Huskies premature departure from the Final 8.

“It’s a tough way to go out, for sure, but I’m just thankful I had the opportunity to play Huskies basketball,” said Nerdahl in reference to the bronze medal loss to UBC.

Against UBC, Nerdahl collected 12 points, two assists and 25 minutes of court action.

“I had a great two years here. Last year obviously we got to go to the national championships and experienced the highs and right now we’re definitely experiencing the lows. But all in all, I made a lot of friendships to last a lifetime,” added Nerdahl

Nerdahl plans to be involved with the Huskies basketball camps this summer but it remains unknown whether he will return to the program in any capacity next season.

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image: Pete Yee