Young Fennell hones skills in U.S.
CALGARY – In Don Matthews’ lexicon, there is Big Dave and Young Dave.
Big Dave would be former Edmonton Eskimos defensive lineman Dave Fennell, a.k.a. Dr. Death from those legendary Alberta Crude defences that played a role in bringing five straight Grey Cup titles to Edmonton.
Young Dave would also be Dave Fennell — the son of Dr. Death who’s now making his own name as a defensive lineman south of the border in the early stages of his collegiate career at Michigan State.
Matthews coached Big Dave and helped Young Dave take a huge step in his football career, leaving Calgary after spending three years at Rundle College to enrol at Sunset High School in the Portland area for his senior season.
And Matthews, who has seen his share of football talent over the years, is blown away sometimes by how much Young Dave reminds him of Big Dave.
“Unbelievable,” exclaims Matthews in a phone interview from Oregon, where he’s battling cancer in his lymph nodes. “One game; he did a quick swim move over an offensive lineman and went in and just engulfed the quarterback. It reminded me so much of Big Dave that I had to laugh. It was the spitting image.
“Now, I don’t know if he has as much foot speed as Big Dave. Big Dave was quite fast in a straight line, probably a 4.7 guy (in a 40-yard sprint) and Young Dave is probably a 4.9. But Young Dave is working at his speed, and I don’t think Big Dave ever worked at it. He felt that running was a necessary evil. He felt that he only had so many running steps in his body so he wasn’t going to waste any doing drills.”
Young Dave (future references will be to Fennell and Big Dave to avoid confusion) hasn’t looked back since deciding following his Grade 11 season at Rundle that his best path to a U.S. college scholarship was via the U.S.
So arrangements were made for Fennell to move to Oregon and enrol at Sunset High School; he spent the summer at the Matthews residence before his dad set up an apartment to share with his son.
“It was a tough decision, leaving an environment you’re familiar with and leaving your friends and family behind,” says Fennell, a six-foot-two, 270-pounder who redshirted with the Spartans this season (he could practise and dress for games but wasn’t allowed to step on the field for a game.) “But overall, I knew what my goals were. I wanted to go to school in the U.S. and I thought that would give me a better chance to do it. “It was unfamiliar at the start,” adds Fennell, whose younger brother John is a rising star in luge. “I wasn’t knowledgeable about what I was getting into. But I was able to form some good relationships with my coaches and teammates and overall I had a great time at Sunset.”
It helped that Matthews gave him some ins. Prior to his brilliant CFL career, Matthews was the head coach at Sunset, and Sunset’s current head coach, Faustin Riley, was coached by Matthews at the University of Idaho.
Still, Fennell was just one of the crowd when he arrived for his first workout at Sunset compared to players who’d come up through the ranks for years. But by the end of camp, Fennell had earned a starting job and been elected one of the team captains. He went on to earn defensive player of the year honours in the Portland Metro League and was a firstteam state all-star.
Big Dave is just as, if not more, proud of the work his son has done off the field.
“What I’m most proud of is that he’s doing his engineering degree at the same time,” says Big Dave. “You have to be pretty committed to want to do that. But he’s a very unique young man.”