Huskies’ Dheilly prepared to take next step into CFL

Nicholas Dheilly is a man with a plan.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ defensive end had always dreamed of playing in the CFL and hoped to take a giant step toward that goal during Thursday’s draft.

The Regina product, a former member of the University of Regina Rams, was expected to be among the 73 prospects selected by a CFL team. The results of Thursday’s draft weren’t available at press time.

Dheilly was so committed to his goal that he dropped out of school to focus on his draft year even though he has two years left of Canada West eligibility. He informed Scott Flory, the Huskies’ head coach, of his intentions in January.

“He was awesome and he gave me a big hug,” Dheilly said in advance of Thursday’s draft. “He agreed that this was my opportunity to go play. Every team I talked to didn’t care that I had two years left of eligibility and they were just interested in me. I just want to play in the CFL because I’m done with university football.”

Dheilly had only three full seasons of university football, but they were impressive. In his first season with the Rams, he was named the 2016 Canada West rookie of the year after recording 30 defensive tackles, four sacks and an interception. In his second season, Dheilly had 26 defensive tackles and 6.5 sacks while being named a 2017 Canada West all-star.

He left the Rams after his second season, feeling that he needed a change. In 2018, he played with the Okanagan Sun of the Canadian Junior Football League, registering eight sacks en route to being named a BCJFL all-star. He returned to Canada West for the 2019 season with the Huskies, recording 24 defensive tackles, six sacks and an interception.

Those performances caught the eyes of CFL scouts and convinced Flory that Dheilly was ready to make the jump to the CFL.

“I know that he has plans for his life and we talked through that,” said Flory, a former CFL offensive lineman. “He has a big picture of what he wants to do outside of football too. All of the guys who want to play have to go through school and that may not be the plan for all young men. He has a plan on what he wants to do and that’s big for us. We want to make sure if they aren’t playing football for us that they do have a plan.”

Football has been a big part of Dheilly’s life. He played Regina Minor Football before joining the Leboldus Golden Suns. Dheilly was cut from the high school team in Grade 9 after been deemed too small at five-foot-nine. He grew to six-foot-three during the summer and made the team in Grade 10.

“I was also cut from Team Saskatchewan that summer, so I think it put a chip on my shoulder,” said Dheilly, 22. “I worked really hard that year and the growth spurt came at the same time. I got really lucky.”

Dheilly is now six-foot-five and 230 pounds. He might need to add some weight to play defensive end in the CFL or he could be considered at weakside linebacker. Dheilly is also a long snapper, which may work in his favour when it comes to cracking a CFL roster.

“I know my first two years in the league are going to be on special teams and I’m fine with that,” Dheilly said. “I’m a professional football player and I’m still living the dream. Every day at practice I can possibly get a chance to play at my position. That’s what I think is cool about it.”