Justin Dunk
CFL.ca
Raised on a family run cash crop farm just outside of Regina in a little town called Grand Coulee, Ben Heenan was ripping around fields on tractors by the time he was ten years old.
Nowadays, instead of plowing fields in preparation for seeding, Heenan plows holes against opposing defensive fronts in advance of a ball carrier shooting through and wrenches under pass rushers trying to get to his quarterback.
At 6-4 310 pounds, Heenan has developed himself into one finely tuned offensive lineman for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, with lots of horsepower at his disposal much like the high-powered tractors he is used to commanding.
Even though he was driving tractors at a young age, Heenan did not take to playing football until his grade 10 year in high school. A couple team members and the head coach, Kyle McFetridge, at Sheldon-Williams Collegiate in Regina convinced Heenan to give football a try. Good thing they did.
“It was something that I never thought I would try, but they said come out and try and I just loved it,” Heenan said.
The best asset Heenan possessed at the beginning of his football career was his size. When he showed up to play for the Spartans in grade 10 he was 6-3 280 pounds. He played defensive line during his initial season, but did not see much playing time.
In grade 11 he would move to the other side of the football and it was like a match made in heaven.
“We first scouted Ben in grade 11,” Huskies head coach Brian Towriss said. “We saw him play some high school games and we knew right away that he was going to be a good football player by the way he moved, he was a big kid that was pretty athletic.”
Heenan continued to harness his immense raw strength in a way that would be helpful to him on the football field, and Towriss kept close tabs on his development throughout the rest of his high school playing days.
Towriss, who has been the head coach at U of S since 1984, saw something special in the burly farm boy that other college and university scouts failed to see.
Heenan received calls from a couple junior colleges in the states, but his heart was in Saskatchewan and his bloodlines were with the Huskies. Two generations of Heenan’s attended the University of Saskatchewan and after watching the Huskies play on television growing up, Heenan had always wanted to continue the family Huskie legacy.
“Out of high school I knew I wanted to come out here for academic reasons, being from a farm. It was just the perfect combination of academics and football,” Heenan, the current fourth year agriculture and bio resources major said.
“I had a recruiting trip with BT [Towriss] and realized he’s just an honest type of guy that you want to be around for the next four or five years of your life.”
Towriss believed his lineman prospect possessed all the tools needed to succeed at the CIS level.
“All his physical attributes were already in place before he got here,” he said. “So it was a matter of learning how to pass block a little better, plus learning our structure.”
In his first training camp with the Huskies in 2008, Heenan, the hard working farm boy that he is, put his head down and went to work, eventually earning himself a starting position at tackle in his first ever CIS contest.
The thing was, coming into camp Heenan was just hoping to make the team, even if he was red-shirted and didn’t see any playing time for his first year, he would have been happy.
However, his talent and strength were undeniable, and he went on to start every game in his first season and earned Canada West Rookie of the year honours to boot. Not bad for a guy who just wanted to be on the roster.
Heenan’s name has appeared among the starting front five each game day since he has arrived on campus. Further showing his farm-tough attitude, if there is a job to be done or a game to be played Heenan can be counted on to see go the extra mile until his work is done.
“He improves every game and he’s improved every off-season,” Towriss said. “He’s a kid that is always working on his deficiencies.”
After his second season with the Huskies, Heenan impressed so many people with his play that he was invited to attend the 2010 CIS East West Bowl. A week of testing and examination followed by a game in front of CFL scouts – normally reserved for third year players entering their draft year.
Heenan made his second appearance at the CIS East West Bowl earlier this year and by the time he left the Western Ontario campus, there was a definite buzz surrounding the hulking offensive lineman.
“He measured up there as a second year player he was one of the top lineman there two years ago,” Towriss said. He was certainly one of the top two for sure [in 2011], if not the best.
“Ben’s no secret, everybody knows about him, we’ve got scouts coming in all the time to watch film on him. We’ve even had calls from a couple of NFL teams about him.”
Towriss has seen a lot of offensive linemen graduate from his Saskatchewan program to the pro level – over the nearly three decades he has been in charge of the Huskies football program.
Since 1995, 13 offensive linemen, who played under Towriss at the U of S, have been selected in the Canadian College draft, including two current linemen who are among the CFL’s best.
Gene Makowsky kick-started the run of Huskie linemen to the CFL, drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders with the 23rd overall selection in 1995, and recently retired after a standout 17-year CFL career.
Makowsky has earned five CFL All-Star team nods, and has been named the league’s Most Outstanding lineman twice, in 2004 and 2005.
Three years later, former Huskie Scott Flory was drafted 15th overall by the Montreal Alouettes. He will enter his 14th CFL season in 2012, and like Makowsky, has earned two Most Outstanding Linemen awards, along with eight CFL All-Star selections.
The scariest part of all, Towriss believes Heenan can be better than the former Huskie greats.
“He can be if he stays healthy. When you talk about Flory and Makowsky, those guys have been great pros and they’ve also had 10-plus year careers,” Towriss said.
“His level of play at the CIS level and his physical attributes far exceed what either one of those guys had when they were here. He’s ready to play now, he probably would have been a high draft choice last year.”
Makowsky, Flory and other former Huskies with CFL experience come back to the University of Saskatchewan during spring camp each year. Heenan has had a chance to pick their brains, as well as study their skills.
“Its something you strive for, when you see what someone like Gene Makowsky does on the field today and playing at the level that he plays at, you strive to be as good as him one day,” he said. “But when he is that good it’s tough to say if you can ever achieve that.”
Heenan credits Towriss and his two offensive line coaches, Bart Arnold and Travis Serke, for his development into one of the top offensive lineman in the country. “I definitely wouldn’t be the same player without them,” he said.
“Our two offensive line coaches have put six or seven guys into the CFL,” Towriss added.
“Technically [Heenan’s] very sound. He’s advanced because we run a pro type offence, there’s no apparent weaknesses – we know that he’s not going to be back here next year.”
Towriss believes Hee
nan, who participated in the East-West Shrine Bowl in St. Petersburg, Florida on January 21, is ready to step in and play right away at the CFL level. With his farm-tough attitude, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if Heenan proved his coach right once again.
