Vancouver College

Shea Emry '04 CLF Bound!

Shea Emry graduated from VC in 2004.  After playing a few years of College football down south (on scholarship), Shea played this past season with the UBC Thunderbirds.  He immediately was successful among the Canadian Universities.  Shea is poised for graduation from UBC this year and looking to continue his football career at a professional level.

A recent article in the Richmond Review, written by Thomas Miller VC grad '05, better desctribes the story.  Here is part of the article:

Emry excels in CFL evaluation camp

By Thomas Miller - Richmond Review - April 02, 2008

  Emry, 21, who spent this past football season playing linebacker for the University of B.C., had an impressive showing at the camp, March 14 to 16 at the Varsity Centre in downtown Toronto. 

He notched the highest vertical jump of any defensive player at the evaluation camp at 37.5 inches and the fastest 40-yard dash time of any linebacker at 4.73 seconds.

But he wasn’t too impressed with himself.

“It’s all relative,” he said. “My numbers weren’t that great personally but compared to the other linebackers I did pretty well.”Along with the 40-yard dash and vertical leap, prospects competed in the broad jump, bench press, 20-yard shuttle and football specific drills. 

“Sunday morning we went on the football field and that’s when I actually did pretty well,” he said ,speaking of the specific drills that included covering running backs one-on-one in pass patterns.

Weighing 227 pounds and a shade under six feet tall, he ran his shuttle in 4.28 seconds, bench pressed 225 pounds 20 times, and broad jumped nine feet, 11 inches, according to the CFL.

On a point scale that combined the 40-yard dash, bench press, broad jump, vertical and shuttle, Emry finished fourth in the field of 52.

If those numbers weren’t impressive enough, he’s far more imposing in person, and was able to show that through a series of interviews.

“It’s like a job interview, everyone dressed up.” he said. “They can figure out what kind of football player I am by watching game film but they actually want to talk to you.”

General managers and coaches grilled the players on things from their living situations to criminal records.

“It was pretty intense, I was sweating the whole time,” he said. “You’re pretty casual, trying to stay as loose as you can because you don’t want them to think this guy can’t talk to coaches.

“It’s really professional,” Emry continued “All the coaches were laid back in a way that they wanted you to be natural but we both knew it was business.”

He interviewed with each team for about 15 minutes.

  To read the rest of the article click here.