<h1><span lang=""style="font-size:37pt;">From the football field to lifting platform</span></h1>

Ignite coach Dale finds competitive outlet in weightlifting

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Donovan Dale is a competitor in weightlifting.

Donovan Dale found the end of his football playing career didn’t bring an end to his time as a competitor in the world of sports.

Best known as a former star defensive lineman with CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and University of Saskatchewan Huskies football teams in U Sports, Dale found a new sport to pursue that went hand in hand with the elite level coaching he does with Ignite Athletics located inside the Indoor Training Centre. Dale took up weightlifting.

During his relative short time in the sport, Dale was named the Saskatchewan Weightlifting Association’s Best Senior Male Athlete for 2021-22. The coach with the biggest smile among the Ignite Athletics crew has qualified for the Canadian Senior National Weightlifting Championships that are set for May 19 to 21 at Variety Village in Scarborough, Ont.

Dale, who is the head of strength and conditioning at Ignite Athletics, said the athletes he works with at Ignite get a kick out of finding out their 31-year-old coach is still a competitor in sports. His final season of football came back in the fall of 2016 playing on the defensive line with the Huskies. Following that football campaign, Dale joined the Huskies men’s wrestling team and won a silver medal at the Canada West wrestling championships in the 120-kilogram class in February of 2017 after being away from that sport for five years.

On the weightlifting front, Dale said he has found it easier to pass on information and help athletes, if they are having troubles with a lift during workouts.

“There is definitely a bit of a comradery process of when I see them struggling with things it really helps my coaching that I can tell them that, ‘Hey, you know I struggled with this exact same technical issue as well,’” said Dale. “I think it just helps me get on their level quite a bit more, because when they’re struggling with things, they can be confident that I too have also struggled with it and have had to come up with different ways to kind of tackle that problem and fix it.

“The big thing is it really helps build the trust. They trust that I want what is best for them, and I’ve been through the same issues that they’ve been through so that we’ll be able to get through it together.”

Donovan Dale makes a sack for the Huskies in 2015.

When football and his short return to wrestling wrapped up, Dale was finishing up his master’s degree of science in kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan and was focused on his full-time work at Ignite. Dale first joined Ignite Athletics as an athlete client in 2010 before coming on as a coach in a part-time capacity at first in 2014.

After completing his football career, Dale wasn’t looking for a new sport to join, but he didn’t want to stop working out.

“After my football career was done, I was obviously trying to stay active for myself,” said Dale. “I was pretty heavy when I finished my football career.

“I spent two years just losing some weight and just trying to get a little bit healthier. After those kind of years were done and I felt like I gotten my health and fitness kind of at a level that I was happy with, I was kind of going through the audit process of do I want to get back into some kind of competitive sport.”

During his football days at the post-secondary level, Dale, who stands 6-foot-1, had gotten his weight up to 295 pounds playing on the defensive line. He weighed 285 pounds during his final season with the Huskies, and his weight sits 230 pounds these days.

For weightlifting competitions, Dale competes in the 102-kilogram class, so he is able to cut his weight down five pounds to 225 pounds. He found weightlifting seemlessly worked into his lifestyle.

“Weightlifting was just such a natural fit for me, because there are a lot of aspects about weight lifting that I really love,” said Dale, who helped the Hilltops win CJFL titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012. “I love the aspect of technical mastery.

“It is unlike other strength sports where it is the only thing you have to worry about is how much weight your lifting. There are a lot more technical components when it comes to the Olympic lifts, so I love that. The other thing was it just really worked for my lifestyle.

Donovan Dale is going to weightlifting nationals.

“Having three young kids at home, it is harder to get out back into a team sport where you have to do your practices and games at weird times and things like that. The nice thing about weightlifting is Ignite is very well equipped. Essentially for my training schedule, I just show up a little bit early for most of my shifts, and I am able to bang out a workout nice and quickly.”

Dale said he got motivated to be in the sport watching videos of a former Hilltops teammate in receiver Graham Unruh take part in weightlifting. 

After seeing Unruh’s videos of being a national level competitor, Dale thought that was a sport he could pursue. Overall, the one-time prospect with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks is flat out enjoying his new sporting pursuit, and he is looking forward to going to nationals in May.

“It has been fun,” said Dale. “I definitely love that at 31-years-old now I still feel like I have a lot of competitive years left in me, so it has been cool to kind of enter the competitive scene.

“I’ve done enough meets now that I’ve qualified for nationals. I’m going to have nationals in Scarborough this year. That is going to be on May long weekend, so I have no idea what the result is going to be.

“It is just going to be fun to get on a national stage and compete again, because I haven’t been able to do that in a long time.”

Dale expects to be involved in weightlifting for a long time now too. He was a weightlifting coach at the Saskatchewan Winter Games that ran February 19 to 25 in Regina, and he has been involved with helping Ignite Athletics to get set to host its first ever Olympic Weightlifting meet on May 6. Looking to the future, Dale sees himself taking on a role in helping the sport to grow.

Donovan Dale is a popular coach at Ignite Athletics.

“I think I am pretty in deep now,” said Dale. “I just finished coaching in February.

“I was the head coach for the weightlifting team for the Saskatchewan Winter Games, so that was a pretty fun experience. Just seeing weightlifting in Saskatoon, it is pretty exciting. It is definitely a growing sport.

“Participation is on the rise. I would love to work with our provincial body in Sask Weightlifting and see what does it take for us to have to grow the sport. That just gives the kids more opportunities and things to strive for when they are participating in the sport.”

For more information about Ignite Athletics, feel free to check out Ignite’s website at igniteathletics.com. Weightlifting photos of Donovan Dale were submitted by Donovan Dale courtesy Joel Kingston Photography. Donovan Dale profile photo at Ignite Athletics is courtesy Ignite Athletics.