Today’s Desjardins Vanier Cup promises to bring out the very best in Chris Dobko and the Calgary Dinos.
“We’re determined to come back with something this year,” Dobko told the Gazette Thursday during a break in team meetings in a downtown Quebec City hotel. “We’ve been here before and we don’t want to lose again like we did last year.”
The Canada West and Mitchell Bowl champion Dinos (9-2) tackle the Quebec University Football League and Uteck Bowl champion Laval University Rouge-et-Or (12-0) at 9:45 a.m. The CIS final will be shown live on TSN.
In the last top-10 national rankings released Nov. 2, the Dinos were fifth and Laval was number one.
The final is billed as a classic matchup between the Dinos’ high-powered offence and Laval’s dominating defence. The Dinos have scored 35 points or more in each of their last five games, including totals of 40, 56 and 36 in the playoffs. Laval allowed a stingy 6.4 points per game in conference play and in the playoffs picked off 14 passes.
“We’ll be ready for them,” said Dobko, a pass catcher who returns kicks. “It’s going to be a good game.”
In the 2009 final the Dinos blew a sizeable lead while going down to defeat 33-31 to the Queen’s Golden Gaels in Quebec City.
“We went through 12 weeks of football and to come up short by two points after we had a huge lead was pretty devastating,” Dobko said. “It was the first time the Dinos had been to a Vanier Cup in a number of years so there was that excitement of just being there. This year there is still that excitement but it’s a little bit different because we came up short last year.”
The high school football product of the St. Albert High Skyhawks believes the Dinos are more experienced than last year’s team with most of the starters back for another season.
“People are just a year better at everything they do,” said the 2007 Haliburton Trophy winner as the pool B MVP in the metro Edmonton league’s senior division. “We also got a couple of people back that weren’t there last year and that’s made a difference too.”
Dobko, 20, made the travelling squad for the Dinos in his freshman season after a year of junior with the Edmonton Wildcats. In five Canada West games the Paul Kane High School grad averaged 46.2 all-purpose yards, with a 21.8 average on kick returns and 9.3 average on punt returns. He also averaged 13.2 yards on five receptions and caught a pass in every game but one.
“In your first year everything moves real fast and you don’t really know what to expect. This year now everything has really slowed down a lot,” said the co-MVP on the 2004 Football Alberta tier II bantam provincial champion St. Albert 49ers. “There were a couple of defences I saw last year that I never had played against before and I didn’t know what they were. Now it’s my second year and you understand the concepts of the defences better so you can start to make plays when you’re out there.”
This year in Canada West the six-foot-one and 196-pound Dino reeled in 11 passes (fifth-highest on the team) and averaged 16.4 yards per reception.
“It’s been kind of up and down. At the start of the year it was real good because we started the year with a lot of injuries and it gave me a chance to get to play because we just didn’t have many people around,” Dobko said. “I actually had a huge game against Regina in the second game of the year [at weak side receiver]. I had 114 yards receiving on five catches [longest was 44 yards]. I led the team in receiving at that point and then from there I had catches here and there and blocked a lot, but as guys got healthier I just kind of got forced out a little bit.”
He has lined up in a variety of receiving positions throughout the season.
“I’m not that far out from playing so I’ve got to know everything in case something does happen,” said the U19 Team Alberta tailback at the 2008 Football Canada Cup.
Dobko also led the Dinos in kick returns with 14 for 284 yards and 20.3 average. His longest dash was 26 yards.
“It’s the only time I’ve really got on the field now so I love it for sure because it means I’m playing,” said the open studies student who has three years football eligibility remaining.
He isn’t the only Dobko to make a name for himself on the gridiron. His younger brother, Spencer, a centre with the Edmonton Huskies, was selected the player who made the greatest contribution with the least recognition for the team in his first year of junior.
