There’s never guarantees where a football player will end up on CFL draft day.
From Vancouver to Montreal and anywhere in between can be as predictable as a roll of the dice.
So, when David Beard was picked in the second round, 16th overall by the Edmonton Eskimos in the 2015 draft, it’s no surprise that he considered himself one of the luckiest men alive.
From the football factory that is Bev Facey High School in Sherwood Park, to the University of Alberta Golden Bears and now with the Edmonton Eskimos, Beard has plied his trade in familiar surroundings.
What are the odds?
Although his rookie season ended abruptly with injury, Beard is determined to carry on the progress he showed in the early part of the year.
Heading in to the 2015 draft, Beard had prepared himself for whatever eventuality would unfold.
“It was a long-awaited process,” said Beard. “I spend a lot of last year thinking about the possibilities and ramifications of getting drafted. How things would look for my family, what would be a consequence of being drafted … both positive and negative.
All things being considered, it was such an unknown that I had to come to a place in my mind that I would roll with the punches, no matter what.”
What he knew for sure is that, no matter at what point of the draft he’d be taken and no matter where he would end it, it meant that he could continue to play the game he loved.
“All I knew is it was going to be an opportunity I could take advantage of,” said Beard. “It made things a lot more enjoyable that way, rather than being all worked up about how things were going to play our, where I was going, when I was going and that kind of thing,”
Being drafted by a team in the area he grew up in may have been something that he wished for in the back of his mind, but then … what are the odds?
There’s the support network of close-by family and former teammates who could keep an eye on the progress every home game, not just the once or twice a year when another team would be the visitors.
“It was a huge blessing,” said Beard. “I was beyond thrilled in that regard. It was like a cherry on top. We ended up pulling a (Grey Cup) W at the end of the year. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier. I’m probably happier than any other draftee last year.”
Beard was the Bears offensive lineman of the year in 2013 and earned CIS second-team all-star honours in 2014.
“I’m about as local as it gets,” said Beard. “Things turned out very, very well for me. There was a lot of questions about the expectations I had. I wasn’t sure how my body was going to react, coming off an injury going into the draft. I didn’t know what the load was going to be physically and mentally.
“I had this idea, based on everybody else’s stories, that it was such a big physical jump. I was preparing myself as time went on. I soon realized, when I got to camp, that although it was a big physical jump, the biggest jump was a mental jump.”
Facing and fending off ferocious defenders was one thing. Recognizing some of the tricks and making quick decisions reacting to them is a whole different ball game in at the pro level. And, there was a difference from the shorter, yet more intense CIS style.
“Coming from a much simpler system to a much more complex system actually was probably the most taxing of all,” said Beard. “Trying to straighten out all the different angles being pulled as a rookie offensive lineman, there were a lot more questions than expectations. I really, really enjoyed it.
“Surprisingly, even coming out of Week 9, a longer season than I’ve ever had with the Bears, my body came out feeling a lot better. We’d only be banging one day a week with the pads and the rest of the week, we’d be smart about it. We preserved our bodies while getting lots of mental work in.
“The big difference is after eight weeks of university, you’d come out feeling like you were hit by a truck. It was really good that way.”
With one year under his belt, Beard is now anxious to make up for lost time.
Stay tuned to ESKS.com for live coverage of the 2016 CFL Draft on Tuesday May 10 @ 5p
Watch the first two round live on TSN2.