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PEI’s Marcus Dunphy tries to blaze a CFL trail

When most people think of Prince Edward Island, potatoes, picturesque scenery, Anne of Green Gables and perhaps even the Charlottetown Accord probably come to mind before football. Canada's smallest province by population and smallest province or territory by area isn't exactly renowned for its gridiron greats, and they don't even have a team at the CIS level. Marcus Dunphy's trying to change that, though; the Holland College player showed off his talents for Toronto Argonauts' director of Canadian scouting (and former UBC head coach) Ted Goveia this weekend, and he may have a shot at picking up an invitation to the Argonauts' training camp. As the CBC reports, Dunphy's game tape was impressive enough to convince Goveia to make a trip to the island primarily to scout him:

Goveia said he never thought to visit P.E.I. on business with the Argos, until an assistant coach with the Holland College Hurricanes sent him a game video featuring Dunphy.

"Marcus is a hard-nosed player. He moves well. He's a well-conditioned athlete. And we're just trying to see if he has the speed that can transition him to the next level," Goveia said.

Dunphy certainly sounds impressive, too. The 24-year-old middle linebacker has starred for Holland College in the Atlantic Football League (a five-team league which also features teams from CIS schools that don't play CIS football, including Dalhousie University and the University of New Brunswick), and this past year, he led the Hurricanes to the first intercollegiate football title for any PEI team since Saint Dunstan's University won an Atlantic University Football B-division championship in 1960. It was only the second year of the Hurricanes' program, too, and Dunphy was named their Defensive Player of the Year in both of his seasons. His physical metrics are also impressive; according to this release, he's recorded a time of 4.74 seconds in the 40-yard dash (which would have put him fourth-best of the linebackers at this year's official E-Camp) and this story says he can bench 225 pounds 31 times (which would have put him as the top linebacker and third across all positions at E-Camp). Making the CFL obviously isn't all about either metrics or play at lower levels, but Dunphy has done well enough in both categories that he may be worthy of a shot.

One of the ongoing themes in both the CFL and the larger football world of late is that talent can come from surprising places. Sure, plenty of CFL players still come in through top NCAA schools or CIS powerhouses, but there's a growing recognition that there's plenty of talent out there beyond the traditional avenues. That's why we're seeing more players from smaller CIS and NCAA schools, as well as the junior football ranks, and it's also part of why alternative efforts like Duane Forde's combine are so important; the CFL's scale-limited E-Camp clearly can't pick up all the capable players out there with the depth of Canadian talent around at the moment.

Even those alternative camps can't pick up everyone, though, and it would be very easy for a guy like Dunphy to fall through the cracks; he comes from an area that isn't known for football and a program that's only been around for two years. Goveia and the Argonauts deserve a lot of credit for being willing to take a serious look at a player with Dunphy's unconventional background, but it could pan out well for them; if he impresses and makes the team (or even just earns a camp invite), they get a capable Canadian player with a tremendous backstory. Even if Dunphy doesn't catch on in the CFL this year, though, his story might be enough to inspire more young PEI athletes to take football seriously, and that could pay big benefits for Canadian football down the road.