Amor Fati: Nick Orr speaks on his busy summer and the season ahead

WATERLOO, Ont. - Nick Orr (Caledon, ON/) hasn't stopped growing as an athlete since first arriving at the University of Waterloo in the fall of 2022. 

From winning the starting quarterback job as a true freshman, to being selected to play in the 2025 East-West Bowl on home turf in May, solidifying his place as one of the top CFL draft-eligible players in U SPORTS heading into this season, the Caledon, Ont. native has taken massive strides on and off the field in his time as a Warrior. 

And yet, Orr will tell you his evolution as a quarterback and as a leader is just beginning. 

"When I was younger, I used to go to camps and I just wanted to show off and impress," he said.  

For most players at this stage of their U SPORTS careers, that's precisely the goal. And Orr has had plenty of chances to impress CFL scouts and coaches this summer. The morning after the East-West Bowl game – in which he threw for 98 yards, a touchdown, and an interception while leading Team West with 54 yards on the ground – he arrived in Guelph for the Toronto Argonauts training camp, where he was invited to participate through the CFL QB Internship program. 

"I viewed Toronto as a learning experience, and I went in not trying to show that I have it all figured out." 

"They really let me do everything. I was in all the meetings. I took some reps in practice," he said. "My biggest take away was schematic awareness and Football IQ. It's such an advanced game in the CFL, and they were so good at showing me the ropes, showing me their plays, and how they conceptually view our plays." 

He's also been training this offseason with QB Movement's Myles Gibbon, who's helped develop pros including Warriors all-time great and current Edmonton Elk Tre Ford. Orr has spent time Finch QB training, run by former Western Mustangs great Will Finch, this summer as well. 

"I'm not trying to light it up and show them 'I can do this, I can do that,'" he said, "No, dude, I'm coming to you because you're an expert I want you to show me, tell me what I need to work on, because that's how you can take away the most from those experiences." 

This aligns with an overall shift in perspective for Orr, who has come to view the game and his love for competing differently. 

"You play it for fun as a kid, and then all of a sudden it gets serious and you have to market yourself. You have to get on the radar. You have to get recruited. You're battling."  

"I get here. I'm battling right away to start. And you don't really have a chance to kind of slow down and think of why you're doing it." 

"I used to want to play football for the tangible; I want to win 'x' amount of games. I want to win this championship. I want to throw for this many yards. But I've come to realize that the joy I get from football comes from the little moments in practice." 

"If my goal is to just give this sport everything that I have and take away as much as I can from it, then those goals will be reached" 

That said, winning games is still very much front-of-mind for Orr and the rest of this Warriors team. It's safe to say last season's winless record left the fourth-year pivot anything but satisfied. 

"People can say all they want that it doesn't reflect how we played, but at the end of the day, we did lose eight games, and I'm prepared to lose a limb to make sure that that doesn't happen again." 

Orr gives credit for this new outlook on football and life to his coaching staff with the Warriors, as well as of course to 19th century German philosopher Friederich Nietzsche.  

Orr, a philosophy major, quoted the concept of Amor Fati, popularized in Nietzsche's book Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is. From latin, Amor Fati roughly translates to "love of one's fate." 

In Orr's words: "it basically means that everything that's ever happened has value. Even your bad experiences, they brought you to where you are now, they've taught you a lesson. There are no experiences that are net negatives." 

Orr thinks back to last year's battle of Waterloo clash. It was another loss for the black and gold, but one that saw them strike some fear into their crosstown rivals and the eventual Yates Cup champions.  

"We went in and we just played angry and we played like the Bad Boy Warriors and it caught them off guard," he said. 

"We've always been a team that flashes. And people say 'wow, if they can just do that on every play, they're good.' And I think now we're in a spot where we have the leadership in place to make sure that that those flashes continue throughout an entire game." 

Orr is an integral part of that leadership group, having been part of the kind of transitional period that's fairly rare in U SPORTS football. 

When Orr arrived at Waterloo, he was immediately the oldest quarterback on the roster by age – a situation almost unheard of for a true freshman. He quickly won the starter's job over sophomore Nolan Kaban (Calgary, AB/), which earned him the right to stand in perhaps the longest shadow any Warriors student-athlete has ever cast. 

A year removed from Tre Ford's Hec Creighton-winning season, the Warriors missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017. They returned to the postseason the next year before falling to the bottom of the conference standings in 2024. 

"I've kind of been through the ups and downs of this team and I'm ready to start a new era." 

"Me being the oldest quarterback in my first year was not a unique experience. There were plenty of players that were thrust into starting roles very early and they had to deal with the the ebbs and flows of being a young player without much you know time to be ready." 

Much of the Warriors late-2010s core players – such as Tre's twin brother and Elks teammate Tyrell Ford and OUA all-time receptions leader Gordon Lam (Kitchener/) – graduated alongside or shortly after Tre, leaving Waterloo with an exceptionally young roster in the first few seasons after the pandemic. 

"That experience of going into going into Western, who have a bunch of sixth-year guys, when your team is mostly second-years, that teaches you something that I don't think the guys at Western can learn. I think I think that's a unique challenge that we've all overcome and I think it will serve us well." 

This openness to learning from every experience informed how Orr has navigated his jam-packed summer.  

The result? 

"I haven't felt this excited since my going into my first year, and I've felt better physically and spiritually." 

Orr hopes he can pass on what he's learned to the next generation of Warriors. Multiple generations, that is, as Orr's summer job between all of the extra football was as a camp counselor for the Warriors' summer camps. 

"I feel now I'm in a position where I can lift others up. We have a number of really good young quarterbacks on the team, and I think we have a really good culture in our quarterback room and I think every quarterback that's come in has sort of entered this very positive, competitive but encouraging atmosphere." 

"Being a leader of that room and making sure that that becomes the standard is very important to me, and I think now that I'm an older player on the team, I can really leave my my fingerprints on the DNA, the culture of the team and how people act, not just on the field but like in the classroom." 

"My goal is obviously to maximize my time here, but also make sure that it's done the right way, so that success can can continue to come after I'm done here." 

Orr is anything but done, and the excitement he expressed radiates out of him as he speaks about stepping back on the field for the 2025 OUA season. 

"We have a lot of really good, talented young players that are that are ready to take over," he says, naming last year's breakout defensive star Michael Omoseni (Burlington, ON/) and speedy receiver Yinka Ogunnote (Guelph, ON/), among others, as players to watch. 

"I don't feel like we're respected. I think that we can make a lot of noise, and I'm just antsy to show that. That's what keeps you up at night. 

The Warriors kick off their season at home on Saturday, August 23rd at 4:00 PM against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Tickets for all regular season home games are on sale now. UW students receive free admission by tapping their WatCard.