It was last May when Dexter Janke was released by the Calgary Stampeders, the team that drafted him.
When another CFL team didn’t sign him, he switched his focus to the iced track.
As we told you in a story in December, Janke had been recruited by Bobsleigh Canada a few years ago, so he went to a camp and was selected to join Team Canada. He just finished his first season of international competition.
“It was a great experience,” Janke said. “I enjoyed it.”
But in March, while at the World Championships in Whistler, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offered him a contract.
Janke, a defensive back, didn’t even think twice before agreeing to join the Bombers this season.
“It (football) was always in the back of my mind,” Janke said. “I had come to terms with it myself that less than one per cent of people even get to play professional football, maybe another opportunity won’t come along.”
READ MORE: Edmonton man headed to first CFL training camp
It left him only eight weeks to prepare for training camp. He went to Elite Athlete Training Systems (E.A.T.S) in Spruce Grove. Owner Brad Dayman specializes in training football athletes, but he learned about bobsleigh so he could train Janke last summer.
Now it’s back to football, which is fairly similar in terms of strength training, not to mention it’s easy to work with Janke.
“Oh yeah,” Dayman said. “It’s hard to keep up with him.”
“This is a great opportunity, I am a football player,” Janke said. “It is what I’ve been training for my entire life, so I’ll reassess bobsleigh after the football season and kind of go from there.”
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