It was an unlikely road to get here, and it took a trade late in the first round of the 2024 CFL Draft for it to finally happen, but some way, somehow, Jake Maier and Christy Nkanu were destined to be teammates.

The pair’s history begins at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., about 2,482 kilometers away from where their paths now meet again in Calgary.

“He ended up going to high school with my brothers, so it was maybe a few years after me,” explained Maier. “Because he was so far away from home my aunt and uncle basically let him live with them for his entire high school life, career, however you want to look at it; so he became part of the family pretty fast.

“The real cherry on top for me was he was a student for my mom in one of her classes, I don’t remember what class it was, and my mom loves him. My aunt and uncle, they’re basically like grandparents to him at this point.”

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Coach Pat DelMonaco gives our 8th overall pick, Christy Nkanu a call! 📞 pic.twitter.com/4IjLaphRCD

— Calgary Stampeders (@calstampeders) May 1, 2024

Although Maier had moved on to college and eventually his pro career, he had always kept tabs on Nkanu’s football journey.

“I know he went to Southern Utah, and then obviously he went to Washington State, and he had a good career (there), and the whole time for me I was kind of just watching from afar,” said Maier.

“I was at (UC) Davis, and then I was up in Canada, so him and I hanging out or interacting was really not much at all. I just knew he was with my family a lot.”

Watch from afar no more, a week from today Maier will have a literal close-up look at Nkanu at camp.

And his mom, Lori, knew this moment would someday come along.

Following a trade with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where Calgary sent their back-to-back picks in the second round (13 and 14) to the Blue and Gold in exchange for their eighth overall pick and 28th pick in the third round, what had once been thrown out as a friendly prediction had become a reality.

“According to my mom,” said Maier, “the story is Christy would talk about how he wanted to be in the NFL or CFL, whatever it may be, he just wanted the opportunity to play pro football, and him and my mom would always joke that, ‘Hey, one day, you and Jake are going to be teammates, and you’re going to be his tackle and Jake’s going to be the quarterback’ at whatever level it is, NFL, CFL, you name it, and they would always just joke about that.

“I think my mom genuinely believed it, but I think Christy would kind of just laugh about it and think it was cool, and that it’s a probably a long shot but who knows.

“And then sure enough, I get a facetime call the day of the draft from my mom and Christy sitting on the couch at my aunt and uncle’s house because they were watching the draft. And it was crazy, it was like, ‘Wow, what are the odds of that,’ for us to trade into the first round and take him, knowing how important the tackle position was for us.

“And I had no idea that he was even on our radar or that this was even a possibility. I knew he was going to be drafted by somebody in the CFL, I just didn’t know that it would be us via trade in the first round, so I thought it was fate and I think that was really cool.”

Nkanu recalls being drafted by the Red and White just as surprising as Maier did.

“It was really exciting,” said Nkanu. “I was expecting a call from the team that was going to draft me before my name got called and I didn’t get the call so when my name got announced me and my whole family just screamed because it caught us off guard.

“It was a great night; it was a great experience, and I will never forget it.”

The pair will finally play alongside each other this coming week as training camp gets underway on Sunday, May 12.

“We’ve talked since the draft but really, it’s going to be the first time we’ve been able to interact with each other on a daily basis,” said Maier. “He’s pretty much been in my family for the last few years now. It’s going to be fun for me, man.

“I’m glad that we have this familiarity, and we can enjoy it together now.”

And the excitement of finally working together goes both ways.

“When I got drafted, I got on the phone with (offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Pat DelMonaco), and then I got on facetime with Jake for a little bit and the last couple of days we’ve been texting back and forth,” said Nkanu.

“So, I’m really excited to get up there and get to work with him.”