Past, meet present. Present, meet past.
Two of the most exciting wideouts in U Sports history – McMaster’s Danny Vandervoort and the Tiger-Cats’ Andy Fantuz – do have plans to meet and it’ll be within the next few weeks.
“I actually reached out to him (Vandervoort) before Christmas,” Fantuz said. “(I’m) hoping to hear back from him and do some training this off-season before he makes the big jump.”
The two will have to play a bit of telephone tag while they wait to figure out a space to begin that training as Vandervoort gets ready to “make the jump” at the 2017 National Combine and the 2017 CFL Draft. He’s also been invited to attend the NFL regional combine at the end of February.
“I sent him (Fantuz) a message but we haven’t been able to meet up yet just because we don’t have a facility booked at Mac,” said Vandervoort, hardly hiding his excitement. “But starting next week we do (have a facility booked), so I think I’m going to give him a text back to see if he could come to those just to have the indoor facility to work with because weather permitting it’s tough planning even with rain some days.”
When it finally does happen, Vandervoort – who is just over a decade Fantuz’s junior – couldn’t ask for anything better than to meet the player who’s inspired him throughout his entire football career.
“What he did in the OUA and the CIS (now U Sports) was amazing,” Vandervoort said of Fantuz’s time with the Mustangs. “I used to watch him as a kid so it’s crazy that I even get to talk to him and that he reached out to me. I grew up watching him and I heard about him when I was younger so it’s pretty cool that I get to talk to a professional player that I looked up to growing up.”
Vandervoort and Fantuz both play the same position, wide receiver, but that’s not the only similarity between the two.
The two wear the same number, 83 – a coincidence perhaps – they’re both a nightmare for any secondary with their wicked reaches – being 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-2 – and they’ve equally dominated with their respective university teams – Fantuz with Western and Vandervoort with the Mauraders.
Fantuz played four seasons with the Mustangs (2002-05) where he set U Sports records for career receiving yards (4,123), single-season receiving yards (1,300 in his rookie season), receptions (189) and touchdowns receptions (41).
In Vandervoort’s four seasons with McMaster (2013-16), the Barrie, Ont. native collected 148 receptions and 2,572 receiving yards. His 29 career receiving touchdowns are third all-time in U Sports history, just behind Fantuz and Ivan Birungi.
“Coming in they (McMaster) had a great receiving corps that were all coming back from the Vanier era,” Vandervoort said of his surprise addition to the lineup in 2013. “I was just hoping to see the field and I fought my way through in training camp, which was kind of rough, but in the first week I ended up getting the nod to start so that was kind of cool.
“I would have never thought coming in that a kid from Barrie would be able to be third all-time in receiving touchdowns.”
Fantuz came to the Tiger-Cats in 2012 after spending six seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (CFL.ca)
Both pass-catchers began their development into the players they are today through Football Canada tournaments before they suited up at the university level. Fantuz donned the red and white for the U19 Team Ontario back in 2002 while Vandervoort played in the Canada Cup for Ontario East in 2011.
“You meet a lot of coaches that coach at the university level so you get a lot of exposure there and you see a lot of players that you don’t normally see just playing high school football,” Vandervoort said of his involvement in the Canada Cup. “You get to see the best players in the province and across Canada when you get to play against the other teams. It’s really good for exposure with the coaches and to be able to see players from all around Canada.”
Back in 2002 with Team Ontario, before he went on to win Rookie of the Year with Western in his first year as a Mustang, Fantuz used his chance playing at the national level to learn as much as he could from the rest of the players and coaches to perfect his game.
“Playing in a tournament like that really gave me a lot of experience against the top talent from across the country,” the Chatham native remembered. “I can honestly say it made me progress leaps and bounds because growing up in a small town I didn’t get that type of competition day in and day out. To play in a tournament like that where you get great coaching, the best coaching from the whole province, and you get to compete against all of your friends and opponents from across the province to try to make the team and then to go into the tournament.
“To see (and play against) people you don’t really know anything about and have a provincial team experience (was great). That was something I’d never experienced before. I think it’s really propelled me, it kind of threw me into the fire in a different type of competition level than anything I was used to.”
Along with Fantuz and Vandervoort, countless current CFLers have hit the gridiron playing for their country in the Canada Cup including Anthony Coombs (Toronto Argonauts), Tyler Crapigna (Saskatchewan Roughriders), Nic Demski (Saskatchewan), Arnaud Gascon-Nadon (Ottawa REDBLACKS) and Shawn Gore (BC Lions).
Nine of the 20 players – that includes Vandervoort – named on the CFL’s December Scouting Bureau Rankings have played in Football Canada tournaments, as the next crop of top football talent in Canada was able to take its game to the national stage.
Laval’s Antony Auclair played in the 2013 International Bowl suiting up on the IFAF World Team and also represented Quebec in 2010 in the Canada Cup. UCLA’s Eli Ankou was a part of the 2012 IFAF World Team that defeated the US National Team.
“I used to watch him as a kid so it’s crazy that I even get to talk to him and that he reached out to me.”
Danny Vandervoort on meeting Andy Fantuz
Manitoba’s Geoff Gray represented Manitoba at the 2011 Canada Cup while Iowa’s Faith Ekakitie played in the 2012 International Bowl with the IFAF World Team.
Maine’s Chris Mulumba played in the 2012 International Bowl, alongside Ankou and Coombs, and also played in the Canada Cup twice, first in 2009 as a member of the U19 team and in 2010 as a member of the U18 division.
Idaho’s Mason Woods represented BC at the 2010 and 2011 Canada Cups while Laval’s Jean-Simon Roy played on the gold medal winning 2012 Junior National Team at the 2012 IFAF U19 World Championship. And finally, Regina’s Mitch Picton played in the 2012 Canada Cup with Saskatchewan.
While it’s not clear where Vandervoort will land after the draft takes place, he’d be thrilled if he walks away wearing the double blue and ends up playing for his childhood favourite CFL team.
“I grew up in Barrie so they (Toronto Argonauts) were the closest team and we used to go to games all the time as a kid so that was the atmosphere in the Rogers Centre, or the SkyDome back when I used to go,” he laughed remembering the name of the Argos’ former home. “That I remember the most.”
When the meeting of the receivers takes place, Fantuz has just one piece of advice to give to Vandervoort, a piece of advice that the CFL vet has used himself for his entire career.
“Take everything in like a sponge,” Fantuz’s said. “You may have been used to a certain method of thinking or a certain way of doing things but through my time, I’ve learned a lot from all types of different philosophies of coaching, both from actual coaches and from players.
“I study my teammates and study my opponents and you can learn a lot from people. Take all the information you can in and you can figure out which method system seems to work best for your own game and your own body and run with that one.”
