Cassell gambles, goes all-in

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/06/2011 (5598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The odds are stacked against him. And the stakes he has wagered are huge.

Dashawn Cassell is betting nothing less than a scholarship at a major American University that he can crack the roster of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this month.

The twist? At just 20 years and two months, Cassell is the youngest player in any of the eight CFL training camps that opened over the weekend.

It’s quite a bold gamble the 6-foot-3, 275-pound defensive lineman has pushed across the table this spring.

“I was recruited by all the biggest schools in the country — USC, Florida, Miami, most of the big schools really. Some of those scholarships were worth 50, 60 grand,” says Cassell, who comes to the Bombers off a first-team all-star performance at College of the Canyons, a junior college in the Northern National Football Conference outside Los Angeles.

“Definitely it is a big risk. My parents were really skeptical at first — they wanted me to go to college.

“But I still needed another English credit to be able to go and my parents talked to (Bombers GM) Joe Mack and (defensive line) coach Richard Harris and they all think this is a good chance for me to get better. If it doesn’t work, I can always go back to college and get my bachelor degree.”

It will be much costlier later, however.

“My amateur status is over now. But I’m here to make this Blue Bombers team. I’m just watching what everyone else does and listening to instructions. I know my abilities — I think I can definitely make this team if I play to the best of my abilities.”

The Bombers agree, with both head coach Paul LaPolice and assistant GM Ross Hodgkinson adamant that Cassell is not here as some kind of novelty act.

Cassell came to the Bombers in part thanks to a connection receivers coach Chris Wiesehan has with the College of the Canyons coaching staff. “Why can’t he make the team?” asked Hodgkinson. “He’s impressed the staff.”

Cassell is listed on the depth chart as one of three candidates — imports Kenny Mainor and Jason Vega are the others — auditioning for the defensive end position vacated by Phillip Hunt’s departure to the NFL and LaPolice says there is only one criteria necessary for Cassell to take Hunt’s old job.

“If he’s better than the other guys.” LaPolice said, invoking the memory of another young prospect who once showed up at Bombers training camp and made the club en route to an eventual career in the NFL. “Mike Sellers was a guy who came up to this league at 19 years-old, I believe…The big thing I told (Cassell) was just understand — it’s hard as a (20-year-old). You might have all the talent and athletic ability, but you’ve got to make sure you can study and learn and do all the things the right way.”

Cassell worked out Sunday right alongside defensive tackle Doug Brown, who is also noteworthy for his age — but in a different way.

“We figured out that when Doug Brown was in the NFL,” said Cassell, “I was five years old. That’s crazy. He’s (36) and I’m 20 — that’s a huge jump.”

Tell me about it, said Brown. “He’s not alone in terms of the players on this team I could have fathered,” said Brown. “It’s so strange. Maybe it’s the concurrent head trauma or whatever, but every year blends together and I have a hard time believing I’m the Troy Westwood, the aged Bob Cameron or the decrepit Milt Stegall on this football team now.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca