By Allen Cameron,
Calgary Herald
The most intriguing Calgary Dino prospect for today’s Canadian Football League college draft has never played a down for the Dinos.
In a year when just one player from last year’s Dinos football squad, offensive lineman Richard Yalowsky, will likely hear his name called today, it’s a U of C basketball player who has yet to suit up for the Dinos — on the hardwood or the gridiron — who may turn out to be the biggest dark-horse selection.
And that’s a testament to the shear — almost freakish — athletic ability of Henry Bekkering.
“Henry was in my office half an hour ago, and I was looking at him and I was thinking, ‘Man, this kid is a physical specimen,’ ” said Dinos football coach Blake Nill. “Athletically speaking, you’re not going to find too many kids like him in the draft.”
In fact, Bekkering, who had to sit out last season after transferring from Eastern Washington University, is no stranger to a football field.
He was a two-way player who also handled kicking duties playing high school ball in his hometown of Taber, and even spent a year with Eastern Washington’s football team as a kicker.
But it’s his hoops prowess — particularly, a widely circulated video of him winning a slam-dunk contest — that has made Bekkering a chat room favourite.
His obvious athletic ability — a 40-inch-plus vertical leap, for instance — and size (six-foot-six, 245 pounds) no doubt caught scouts’ eyes when he popped up on the CFL draft-eligible list (as a result of that year spent on the EWU football team).
“I was talking to (a CFL personnel type) recently. He goes, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who keeps throwing the letters we send Henry in the garbage,’ ” said Nill with a chuckle. “It was half a joke; I didn’t throw them directly in the garbage. I went over and asked (Dinos basketball coach) Dan (Vanhooren) if he wanted them thrown in the garbage.”
Should he be picked, the issue becomes whether Bekkering, 21, would even entertain a CFL offer. He has three years of eligibility left with the Dinos and, with his dad holding Dutch citizenship, he’d be a prized commodity as a non-import player in European pro basketball leagues.
“I don’t know; I guess it’s an extra bonus but, right now, I’m just focusing on basketball,” said Bekkering, who has two seasons of basketball eligibility left, and is fighting for a third. “It’s something that’s way down in the future. If they wanted to draft me as a receiver, I haven’t played that since high school or on the scout team in university. I’d definitely need a lot of work. It doesn’t matter how athletic you are.”
Yalowsky, meanwhile, may scare off some teams, but it certainly won’t be because of his prodigious talent.
The 22-year-old Coquitlam, B.C., product beat out current Indianapolis Colt Dan Federkeil to be the team nominee for the 2004 Metras Award as Canada’s top lineman, and was the U of C’s male athlete of the year for 2004-05.
But those Academic All-Canadian awards — Yalowsky is an engineering student — and a history of injury problems (he sat out the latter portion of last season after knee surgery) may drop him deep in the talent pool.
“I’ve had calls from six of the CFL teams about Richard,” said Nill. “There’s even been rumours of some NFL interest, as well. The kid’s a prototypical lineman. He’s in very good condition, he’s not overweight. He’s six-five, 290 pounds and he’s mobile. If any team can convince him to give up his engineering career for a little while and play some football, they’d really have a diamond in the rough there.”
