Shepley’s passion for sumo wrestling makes him a physical force at Combine
Dakoda Shepley finds inspiration away from the football field; turns out he has a thing for sumo wrestling.
The 6-5, 290-pound offensive linemen, who’s from Windsor and plays at the University of British Columbia, is thinking outside the box, looking to sharpen his technique.
“It goes down to primal instincts,” said Shepley Sunday — the final day of testing at the CFL Combine at the University of Winnipeg’s RecPlex. “It’s mono e mono. One guy pushing the other guy. When you really think about the mechanics of the position, offensive line is really sumo wrestling — you can’t get pushed back, you have to push that guy back.
“I watch a lot of sumo wrestling and learn about leverages. If you think about it, down to how low you get to the centre of gravity and the power in the legs, it’s very similar. I’ve never tried sumo wrestling, I’ve actually never even wrestled. My high school wrestling coach really wanted me to be a wrestler. I always refused because I didn’t want to get hurt for football. He’d say, ‘You won’t get hurt, you won’t get hurt.’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to risk it.’ ”
His mom calls him Gentle Giant; he saves most of his physicality for the football field.
“I’ve never really been in a lot of fights,” he said. “I played hockey. I got in some fights then. My dad says, ‘Everyone tries to catch the big fish in the pond. Everyone’s going to try and fight the big guy.’ But I try and stay away from the trouble.”
Shepley tested out tops during the bench press (where the players lift 225 pounds) Saturday night. He did 27 reps.
None of the top-rated offensive linemen in the CFL Scouting Bureau’s rankings — Nebraska’s David Knevel, Connecticut’s Trey Rutherford or Bowling Green’s Ryan Hunter — were at the combine. Fourth-ranked Peter Godber (Rice) was in Winnipeg, but chose not to do the testing and was sent home. Shepley is 11th in the rankings, but, with a good showing this weekend, there’s a good chance he gets picked in the first round of the CFL Draft May 3.
“I’m going to be honest — I have no idea what’s going on with other guys in the draft. I just pay attention to myself,” he said. “That’s the only thing I can control. If you pay too much attention to what teams need and how many guards there are, you kind of lose focus and you get fazed out. I don’t need any of that.”
He’s got some versatility, with the ability to play guard or tackle.
“I played every position in college. The only thing I was a bit rusty at (Sunday), surprisingly, was guard,” he said. “The last time I played guard was in 2016. I just needed to get used to it a bit. I probably should have warmed up and taken a few more reps before the 1-on-1s at guard. But overall, it’s an easy transition.”
The one-on-one drills on Sunday gave Shepley a chance to show what he can do.
“It’s my favourite drill,” he said. “In practice, that’s what I look forward to most. It’s all eyes on you. You get that in your head, everyone’s watching you and you have to rise to the occasion and I feel like I did that today. There are so many variables. I actually like that. So many things could go your way, in the same way that so many things could not. I’m happy things went my way today, I feel, for the most part.”
During the interview process, Shepley talked to representatives from all nine CFL teams.
“Everyone was pretty casual. I tried my best to make them crack a smile,” he said. “I think I have a good sense of humour. Hopefully they saw that in the interview. It was a little lighthearted, it wasn’t as intense as I was told it was going to be. It’s kind of the same with going out and bench pressing with all those eyes on you — you have 13 coaches staring at you and you try not to let it faze you. I think I had good control over that.
“I’ve been telling the people the funniest (question) I had was with Ottawa — they had a box with three doughnuts in it and they asked, ‘Which doughnut do you relate with the most?’ It was a bit of a strange question. A lot of guys said the maple dip because it’s Canadian. The funniest answer I heard was, ‘I’m the maple dip because I’m well rounded and I have no holes.’ That was Ryan Sceviour, not me. That was hilarious. I couldn’t believe he thought of that one on the spot. I was like, ‘Holy cow, I wish I had that one.’
“I just said, I liked the old-fashioned plain because I had eaten one about two minutes before I got in there. They got a good laugh out of that one.”