Armstrong catches coach’s eye
Shot putter is the perfect size for a lineman, but he is not really interested
KAMLOOPS — With three of his starting offensive linemen down with knee injuries, B. C. Lions head coach Mike Benevides was aware that Dylan Armstrong was doing his thing Sunday, in a shot put area adjacent to Hillside Stadium, where the CFL team trains.
Potential help was available, only a few heaves away, and Benevides couldn’t resist indulging in a little fantasy thinking. What if ... “He’s a powerful, explosive guy,” Benevides said. “He’d make a great defensive tackle, or an offensive lineman.”
The silver medallist from the 2011 world championships was making a rare appearance in his hometown, having just arrived from a meet Saturday in Edmonton, which Armstrong won with a toss of better than 21 metres. His best this season is 21.50, recorded at the Prefontaine Classic, June 2, in Eugene, Ore.
Edmonton was a good shot in the arm for him, said Armstrong, who can now indulge in a little home cooking before the Canadian Olympic trials in Calgary, June 27- 30.
“I was really surprised to throw that far, given where I am in my training right now,” he said. “[ But] I’m happy to be home for a couple of weeks. I think this is only the third day I’ve been in Kamloops since Dec. 27. This is where I’m going to get in a lot of work before Calgary.”
At 6- 4, and 345 pounds, Armstrong is every inch what his name suggests — a hard body not hard to miss by other young men who also muscle up for a living.
A few Lions, following their light morning workout, watched him toss the 16- pound ball, while being overseen by his coach, Anatoliy Bondarchuk, the Ukrainian coach’s wife, Galina, and their pet ShihTzu.
Bondarchuk, the 1972 Olympic gold medallist in the hammer throw, ran the USSR’s throws program for 16 years, until the breakup of the Soviet Union. His English is limited but so is Armstrong’s Russian. The pair manage to communicate with gestures, hand signals and a limited vocabulary.
“When you’re with a guy twice a day, for six or seven years, you get used to it,” Armstrong explained. “We understand each other. It’s just all chopped up.”
The dividing line between football and track is one easily crossed. Many receivers and defensive backs ran track in high school or college. Lions offensive lineman Jovan Olafioye — who is about as powerful- looking as Armstrong — was a javelin thrower of some renown at North Carolina Central.
Indeed, offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine maintains that Olafioye can wing the football 75 yards on the fly.
Wouldn’t it be a sight to see how far the No. 1- ranked shot putter in the world last year could strong- arm a football?
“I’ve got lots of buddies in the NFL,” said Armstrong, a graduate of Westsyde secondary who went to the University of Texas on a full- ride scholarship.
“I could have played football at Texas, when I was there. I played football in high school, and I had quite a few offers to go to Division 1 schools. If I’d been able to excel at the Division 1 level, maybe I would have tried the NFL.
“But my [ throws] coaches weren’t too keen on me playing football. They saw me strictly as a track guy.”
Still, five years ago, when Armstrong was 26, he was still getting approached by NFL teams for workouts in hopes of converting his large mass to productive gridiron purposes.
“At that point, I’d put a lot into my track career. It took me a long time to get where I was,” he said. “The other thing is, you look at the longevity of track athletes compared to football players.
“Injury- wise, what are you going to get in the NFL? Three or four years? Then your career might be over. I can do this [ shot put] until I’m 35, 36 years old, if I want to. It would be pretty hard to play football from 22 to 35, like I could do in track.”
His sport not only opens up the prospect of Olympic gold medals, it can be a potential gold mine for a world- class athlete with a generous sponsor ( Nike) who competes for cash on the international circuit.
Put it this way: If the 31- yearold Armstrong was 10 years younger, he still wouldn’t regard the CFL as an option.
“Financially, there are way more business opportunities for me to do what I’m doing,” he said.
“I’ve been sponsored by Nike for 10 years now. And track is big in Europe. Back in the day, I might have considered football, but it probably would have been the NFL. The CFL? Well ... at least it’s here.” But not for much longer. In two days’ time, the CFL team wraps up training camp for another year and, with it, the banners proclaiming: “B. C. Lions, The Pride of All B. C.”
This summer, at the London Olympics, that same provincial pride applies to the big bear shot putter from Kamloops.