Brandon Deschamps got the chance to play, and he ran with it.
Ran quite a ways, in fact.
Deschamps, a 20-year-old from Prince George, was the primary running back for the UBC Thunderbirds football team this season. In just his second year on the active roster, the six-foot, 205-pounder was UBC's leading rusher. Statistically, he was the No. 1 man in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association and was fifth in all of Canada.
In eight games, Deschamps rumbled for 785 yards on 117 carries. He averaged 98.1 yards per contest and picked up a longest single gain of 85 yards.
Two years ago, Deschamps was a red-shirt player for the Thunderbirds, meaning that he practiced but saw no game action. Then, last season, the T-birds used him mainly on special teams until late in the schedule when starting running back Dave Boyd was injured. After that, Deschamps shared the load with fellow back Sam Adu.
At training camp this year, the UBC coaching staff gave Deschamps a shot at being the starting running back and he took full advantage.
"I had a pretty decent camp and I guess they thought that I was ready for the playing time that I got," said Deschamps, a 2010 graduate of Kelly Road secondary school. "Obviously I'm not a complete player by any means but the offensive line, they made it really easy to be able to get those yards this year. I think my success was more a product of those guys than it was anything I did. We had any number of running backs that could have gone in and led Can West in rushing. It was just a matter of who was able to get that job."
Yes, Deschamps is humble when it comes to his accomplishments, which is the mark of a true team player. He also would have traded his impressive individual numbers for group success, because the Thunderbirds struggled to a 2-6 record and missed the Canada West playoffs by one spot.
On the other hand, being such a big part of UBC's offence was undeniably fun for him.
"It's tough to have a good year individually when the team's not having a good year, but I got to play football," he said with a grin. "I got to play running back for the first time in a while. It felt like it did when I was growing up, just going out and playing football for fun. It was really good, really enjoyable."
Deschamps was one of two Prince George players who landed on Canadian Interuniversity Sport's top 10 list for rushing in 2012. The other was Mount Allison University's Jordan Botel, who finished fourth with an average of 109.8 yards per game.
"He had a really good year," Deschamps said of Botel. "I always looked up to Botel as a guy that was really good at football and played running back like myself. I was able to see his stat line this year and I'm happy for him. I think our seasons are a testament to some of the guys in Prince George, guys that work hard and do their best. There is talent in Prince George, a lot of football talent. It's still kind of an untapped resource up there. There are a lot of guys, I'm sure, that could be very successful at this level."
Here in P.G., Deschamps began his minor football career when he was 13 and started playing high school ball in Grade 10. He was recruited by the Thunderbirds after he played in the provincial Senior Bowl in his Grade 12 year.
Getting back to the T-birds, they had only a handful of graduating players on their roster this season so they were relatively young. Deschamps, however, refused to use that as an excuse for their performance, which led to a fifth-place finish in the six-team conference.
"We weren't good enough this year -- I think that's what it comes down to and I think that's what we have to accept it as," he said. "We have to hit the off-season hard and remember that no matter what we think of ourselves, we were not a good football team this year. We have a lot to prove next year."
Given the current makeup of the team, Deschamps is full of optimism when he considers the future of the UBC football program.
"I'm really excited for the years coming up, with the guys that we have and the guys that will continue to come into our program and be a part of our family," said Deschamps, who is considering working toward a degree in philosophy in the classroom. "I think we have a lot of talent and a lot of desire to be good. It's just about putting things together and getting the experience and playing at the level that I think we're capable of."
