By: Mark Dewit
Offensive Lineman, Toronto Argonauts
A graduate of the Calgary Dinos program, Mark just completed his first season with the Argonauts after being drafted in the 6th round, 42nd overall by Toronto in the 2008 CFL Draft. The promising 22 year old played all 18 games with two starts, both at left guard and both against his hometown Calgary Stampeders.
In a three-part series, Mark describes the ups and downs of his first season of professional football in Toronto in “Road to the CFL”.
Previous entries: PART I
PART II:
Two and a half months later my first CFL training camp began. It all started with rookie camp. Rookie camp involves all the players that are new to the team coming together for what basically is a crash course in CFL football. For some of the American players this meant learning the finer points of the Canadian game such as pre-snap receiver motion and having the defensive line one yard off the line of scrimmage (although I seem to remember it taking a few more weeks for some of the defensive line to learn this.) Rookie camp was very exciting. I got to meet a lot of new guys, some of which I had played against in university, and some that I had watched play in the NFL and NCAA. For the three days of rookie camp we usually had two meetings and one practice as the coaches tried to cram us much knowledge into our heads as possible.
On June 1st, the Argos’ main training camp officially started. This was definitely an eye-opening experience as I was a little star-struck at times when meeting players that I had grown up watching. Guys like: Mike O’Shea, Jude St. John and Chad Folk. One memory from my first day at training camp that will stick with me for a long time is when I went up against Adriano Belli in our inside run period. This period is meant to line-up the offensive line, running backs and quarterbacks against the defensive line and linebackers to practice our running plays. Well, one of the very first plays that I was in, I was put flat on my face by an Adriano Belli club to the back. After that first practice I realized that I had a long way to go if I wanted to make this team.
As training camp progressed, and the first pre-season game quickly approached, I was slowly starting to feel more comfortable on the practice field. One of the main difficulties I had was that I had to learn to play multiple positions. Although I played four different positions during my university career, I was only used to playing one per season. Now, on any given play I could have been playing left guard, centre or right guard.
After what felt like the longest training camp of my life (only because it was), I found myself on a train heading to Montreal for the first CFL game of my life. Going into this game I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of how much playing time I would get, or at what position. One thing that turned out to be very exciting was that my parents, Sheryl and John Dewit, would get to watch me in my first CFL game. They had flown out to Montreal to watch the game and then planned to come to Toronto for the second pre-season game.
I would classify my first pre-season CFL game as “not awful.” I ended up playing about a quarter and a half at left guard, and another half of a quarter at centre. I made some decent plays but also made some typical rookie errors. I stepped the wrong way on one running play, and had two of my snaps – while playing my first football game ever at centre – go over top of our quarterback’s head. Overall, I still had a lot to learn and I had to do it very fast if I wanted to be a member of the Argonauts.
The next week of training camp I spent trying to fix some of the mistakes I made in the game against Montreal. This was one of my last chances to prove to the coaches that I could play at this level. Going into our final pre-season game against Hamilton I knew I had to have a very good game.
The second pre-season game against Hamilton went much better than the first game. I played just about half the game, mostly at left guard with a few series at right guard and centre. I didn’t make any mental errors in the game, and that made me very happy because I have always thought of myself as a smart football player; I felt my mistakes against Montreal were uncharacteristic. After playing this second game I was pretty sure I had made the team. Shortly after, my thoughts were confirmed when offensive line coach Bill MacDermott told me that I had better start learning how to play tackle because I would soon be backing up all five offensive line positions. Although it wasn’t official until after the team breakfast the next morning, I was confident enough to tell my parents the news.
My season started with me backing up all five offensive line positions. I played tight end in short yardage situations on offence and even played along the defensive line in short yardage situations. This was a perfect situation for me as it gave me some more time to learn the finer points of CFL offensive line play from veterans like Jude St. John, Chad Folk and Taylor Robertson.
For the first six weeks of the season I lived with teammate Ross Weaver. Unfortunately, Ross was recalled by the United States Air Force about midway through the season and had to return to active duty in Colorado. Ross was my roommate for most of training camp and was a valuable part of our team. It was very sad to see him have to leave us.
Stay linked to Argonauts.ca over over the next week to see Part 3 of Mark’s ‘Road to the CFL!’
Previous editions of ‘Road to the CFL’ – Bryan Crawford (2005) Part 1 | Part 2, Brian Ramsay (2007) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3