The globalization of North American football took another step forward on Wednesday, when the University of Ottawa announced that it would add British-trained quarterback George Reynolds to its team for fall.
Reynolds, a 19-year-old man from Kent, England, who attended the NFL Academy in North London for the last two years, is considered the first trained quarterback in Europe to come to U Sports football since Bernd Dittrich, a native of Austria, played for Simon Fraser University.
The NFL Academy, which will open for elite players aged 16 to 19, describes itself as “an important initiative by the NFL in the UK that aims to use American football to create life-changing opportunities for young people.”
“It was a great platform for me because I was able to work under the best coaches we have in Europe and with the best talents we have in Europe,” Reynolds, the British team’s quarterback, said. “It really helped me prepare for the next level. On the mental level, I learned so much about the game, the covers, the concepts and I think it really put me in an ideal position to take the next step in college football.
“My dreams have always been to go to college and play football there [in North America].”
Reynolds received scholarships to two NCAA Division II schools and a priority location at the University of West Virginia, one of the few NCAA schools to aggressively recruit international talent.
His connection to the head coach of the University of Ottawa, Marcel Bellefeuille, was established by the coordinator of the special forces of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Jeff Reinebold.
Reinebold, a longtime head coach and LCF assistant, works alongside Reynolds’ father, Neil, during the off-season on the NFL coverage on Sky Sports in the UK.
Reynolds was one of eight NFL academy players invited to the Pro Bowl in Orlando, Florida., in January participate in skills challenges against the best American high school students.
Bellefeuille noted Reynolds’ accuracy, his ability to see the field of play and his understanding of the game as things that stood out in his practice and feature film, which made him confident that he could compete at the Canadian university level.
“I really like his body and mental side,” the Gee-Gees head coach said.
The University of O also announced that defensive lineman Kylian Freslon, a native of France, is one of about 20 players from his country who play college football (post-secondary, pre-university) in Quebec.
“The importance for us is that football becomes a global sport and we want to recruit internationally and nationally,” Bellefeuille said. “This is our first foray into recruiting the best student-athletes from abroad.”
Bellefeuille said that the Gee-Gees program will continue its international push by building relationships with clubs in France, which, he hopes, will include clinics in Europe and players coming to Canada to train.
The LCF has announced that players outside Canada who play college football in U Sports will be eligible to be counted as Canadiens in its league.
The NCAA will have its first Division I quarterback of the European breed this fall, with German Alexander Honig starting his freshman season at the Christian University of Texas.
