Back in February 2010, when Brandon Deschamps was still attending high school in Prince George at Kelly Road, he was all ears when Andrew Harris came to the Northern Sport Centre to teach the running backs at the Northern Combine skills camp.
At the time, Harris had just finished off a stellar junior football career at running back with the Vancouver Island Raiders and was about to get drafted into the CFL by the B.C. Lions, while Deschamps was on the verge of breaking into the CIS with the UBC Thunderbirds, who discovered him a month later at the Senior Bowl.
Now Harris and Deschamps are teammates at the Lions' training camp in Kamloops and Deschamps is doing what it takes to open up seams of daylight on the field for Harris to run through.
"It's different from college for sure, everything happens pretty fast, but it's going well," said Deschamps, who turns 23 in August. "Every day here's a blessing, it's something I've dreamed of since I first put on shoulder pads to play football. I'm taking every day in stride, making sure I work hard every day and trying to get the most out if it that I can."
Deschamps didn't get drafted but after an outstanding four-season career at UBC he was high on the list of unattached players the Lions wanted to come to their camp.
"Obviously I was disappointed that I wasn't drafted but it kind of fits my story, being a walk-on at UBC and being undrafted here," Deschamps said. "I found out fairly quickly after (the draft) that the Lions were going to pick me up so I was able to move on from it fairly quickly and focus on football. All my family and a bunch of friends back home are big Lions fans. I like the CFL and the Lions were always my favourite team growing up."
The six-foot, 220-pound Deschamps, a philosophy graduate, says he's come full circle in his career, from being one of the best players on his UBC team to what he considers one of the worst players in the Lions' camp as an untested rookie. He went through a similar transition from high school to college. He's been taking most of his reps on the field as a fullback, a position he hasn't played since Grade 10, and the learning curve is steep.
"The players here are all really good - maybe at college if your technique wasn't perfect you'd get away with it, but here if you're not perfect you're getting beat," he said. "You want to do everything right but those guys are vets and even the young guys are really good athletes and they know what they're doing and understand football really well and work hard.
"There's a lot more blocking at fullback and it's not really a position where they hand off to us a lot, but I've always enjoyed blocking and catching the football and I'm just working at adjusting not only to the position but playing at this level. I'm learning as much as I can from the older fullbacks like Rolly Lumbala and Pascal Lochard. I just absorb what they do and try to replicate it myself."
Deschamps, who red-shirted his first year at UBC, posted his best CIS season in 2013 when he rushed for 1,007 yards (second in the CIS) in just seven games, averaging 143.9 yards per game with no fumbles. His 1,007 yards is the fifth highest single-season rushing total in UBC history.
Deschamps was held to 463 yards in eight games with the last-place T-birds in 2014.
"I loved every minute of playing in the CIS - there were guys from across the country and a lot of good coaches and a lot of good teammates," said Deschamps. "Coming out of high school it was really good to be on my own. I went to a city where I didn't know anybody and it's kind of a cool experience to be on your own and get a new family through the football team."
Deschamps started playing at age 13 in the Prince George Minor Football Association junior bantam division. He credits coaches Tony Reynolds, Ken Hawker, Curtis Hanson and Ryan Bellamy for teaching him basic football skills and encouraging him to pursue higher-level development opportunities at camps in the Lower Mainland.
The son of Cindy and Kerry Deschamps could see his first CFL game action this Friday in Calgary, where the Lions open their preseason against the defending Grey Cup champion Stampeders (6:30 p.m. PDT, TSN 2). The Lions will be at home to play Edmonton in another preseason test, Friday, June 17.
Even if he doesn't get to play, he's enjoying his first pro camp experience. The first round of cuts is coming next Sunday and if he doesn't make it he'll return to UBC for his fifth season of eligibility.
'It's just been a cool experience to be able to wear orange and think to yourself that right now I'm currently part of the B.C. Lions, who knows what will happen tomorrow," he said. "When we were getting on the bus to come to Kamloops there were a bunch of kids and they stopped playing soccer so they could give us high-fives and that was pretty cool for me. I know if I had seen a B.C. Lion and I was young that would be a pretty cool experience for me."
