Riders’ Jacob Dearborn turns record-breaking combine into CFL opportunity

Jacob Dearborn set a goal to become a professional athlete and he embraced the hard work that came with it.

“A lot of guys say they work hard and they like to train and all that stuff and I really hold myself to that,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ rookie safety said this week as the team prepared to meet the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday (5 p.m., Commonwealth Stadium).

Dearborn was a member of the Holland College Hurricanes for three seasons and attended a CFL regional combine in 2016.

“After I went to that combine that year, I set my mind towards this and I held myself very, very accountable,” he said. “I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I knew this is where I wanted to be and what it would take to get here.

“There was no off days. It was, ‘Get yourself to the gym, get yourself to the track, get yourself stretching, eating healthy and all those sort of things.’ ”

All the hard work paid off for Dearborn. After completing his time at Holland College and then spending three seasons with the Carleton University Ravens, Dearborn went to the regional combine once again.

This time his performance put him on the CFL map.

He set an all-time combine record for his position with a broad jump of 11 feet one inch. He also set an Eastern Regional Combine record for defensive backs with a 41-inch vertical.

In case you were wondering who had the highest vert at the Eastern Regional Combine… (@CURavensFB DB Jacob Dearborn, pictured below)#CFLCombine pic.twitter.com/2iRVgQq0uQ

— CFL (@CFL) March 13, 2019

“I was kind of expecting those numbers and I was hoping that they would show my dedication to training and everything,” the 25-year-old said. “When I hit them, it was kind of expected but also exciting because it drew attention, which is what I was looking for.”

While Dearborn knew he could hit those numbers, he wasn’t actually aware they were among the best ever. The performance was good enough for him to get an invitation to the CFL’s national combine.

“That was always the plan to get noticed and just get on the radar,” he said. “I was hoping and kind of expecting those numbers would have a team take a shot on me and say, ‘We want to see more of this kid.’ “

Dearborn’s football career began when he was in Grade 6. Born in Yarker, Ont., a small town located about 35 kilometres northwest of Kingston, he first became interested when his brother, Chris Schibley, joined a spring league.

“The league started that year and my brother is in Grade 8 and I’m sitting in the car with my grandma and my mom watching their practice,” Dearborn said. “They were running this bag back and forth, back and forth and I was laughing at how goofy it looked. I think I ended up joining the team that week or something like that.”

While they have different last names, the brothers are full-blood relatives.

“(Parents Ken Dearborn and Liz Schibley) decided that, when we were born, the first child would get my mom’s last name and the second would get my dad’s,” Dearborn said. “It threw some teachers for a whirl, especially since we look a fair bit alike.”

In Grade 11, Dearborn decided he wanted to take a run at becoming a professional athlete.

“That’s also when I started looking at individuals I was surrounded by. I don’t know if there was anyone specifically but I’d pick and choose the pieces from some of my peers, some of the senior players,” Dearborn said. “It’s very small town so lots of my teachers were involved. My parents thought a lot of the teachers that were there.”

Dearborn decided to go to Holland College because the community college gave him the best opportunity to get some playing time. Now 6-foot-3 and 201 pounds, he said he was about the same height but weighed much less.

“It was a good opportunity for me knowing my size to see the field my first year. At the time, it was more of an academic decision than anything,” Dearborn said. “I went into an electrician program and then as that wrapped up, I wasn’t sold on that as a career and I knew I wanted to keep playing.”

So Dearborn made the move to Carleton.

Despite his career at the Ottawa school and the record-setting performance at the combine, he wasn’t drafted.

“It was a little bit disappointing. Most of my family was around (and) I brought a couple friends down from Ottawa so it was kind of disappointing for a couple days there while there was complete silence trying to figure out what happened and why it didn’t happen,” Dearborn said.

“It was never about being drafted — yes, it would be nice and exciting, my family was all there — but it was all about getting to a training camp.”

That opportunity came when the Roughriders invited him to their rookie and training camps, but he ultimately was sent home.

“I don’t think I ever gave up on the idea (of playing professionally),” Dearborn said. “It was a disappointing moment, sort of crushing at the time, but I was working on getting healthy after that and, once I got healthy, sort of start looking for that opportunity to come again.”

Dearborn suffered a bruised calf which put him out of commission for most of the pre-season.

But he got an opportunity in the CFL, with the Green and White reaching out and signing him in July. He since has been able to crack the game-day roster and has recorded three special-teams tackles in 12 games.

“The initial phone call was to come out and be on the practice roster and got activated pretty quickly after that,” Dearborn said. “Those first couple weeks were kind of crazy fast, just trying to catch up on the playbook and calls and stuff like that.

“I feel like I’ve got it under hand now. There’s always going to be stuff for me to learn in my first year, second year, fifth year, 10th year.”