After high school injury, Dolegala out to prove himself with Riders

Jake Dolegala’s football career hit a roadblock just as it was picking up steam.

The Hamburg, N.Y., product was starting to get interest and offers from colleges in his senior season of high school, but in the third game of the year, he suffered a torn labrum.

“It was a big bump in the road to say the least. All the offers I had lined up, they all went out the window so I was basically back at Square 1,” Dolegala said following a recent practice with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“I just kept pushing and honestly, it was the love of the game that kept me going. I want to be the best at what I do, whatever it is, and that drive continued to stay with me and got me where I am.

“I had a crazy good support staff around me. I had people in my corner pushing me because I was down in the dumpster for a while. They asked me if I really wanted to do it and I told them I did and they kept telling me I could and that was the hurdle I had to get over.”

Now, thanks to that perseverance and love of the game, Dolegala is with the Riders, trying to earn the backup job behind incumbent starter Cody Fajardo.

Dolegala’s love of the game can be attributed to his grandfather, Al Bemiller, who was a member of the Buffalo Bills’ offensive line throughout the 1960s.

“I started (playing football) when I was six years old. I loved it right away. We have football in our family. My grandfather played for the Bills back in the day so I was always around it and it just spiralled into a love affair,” Dolegala said.

“It was cool. We were able to be around the facility a bunch. It was always a dream to get to a professional level like that.”

But with the injury drying up many of his college options, the only option for Dolegala was to head to Milford Academy — a prep school for athletes who could play college sports but are not academically ready.

“Going to Milford was huge. Playing with guys who had those big Division 1 offers, they were there for different reasons and I was there to basically get film. It was really good to play with those guys and prove to myself that I was actually able to play again,” Dolegala said.

After a season there, the only offer that came his way was from Central Connecticut. Over his four seasons with the Blue Devils, he passed for 8,129 passing yards and 48 touchdowns while adding 18 touchdowns on the ground.

“It was a blessing in disguise because I fell in love with the place and fell in love with the coaching staff and just the people there. It was the perfect fit for me,” Dolegala said.

The quarterback didn’t get picked in the 2019 NFL draft but eventually signed with the Cincinnati Bengals. That began a two-year span during which Dolegala bounced between teams including the Miami Dolphins and two stops with each of the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers.

“I learned that it’s a business more than anything,” he said. “You feel like you’re doing everything right and you’re putting yourself in the best position but then to not get an opportunity, it sucks. But it’s a business.

“You go undrafted and it doesn’t help. Going to a small school didn’t help and not having pre-season games didn’t help. It was a combination of a lot of things but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m happy with where I am right now.”

During his time in the NFL, Dolegala got to learn a little bit from some top-end quarterbacks.

“(Aaron Rodgers is) a fantastic guy. Cam Newton is great. Brian Hoyer is great. Everyone I have been around is great. Andy Dalton is just a class act and one of the nicest people in the world,” Dolegala said.

“Every place I’ve been, they’ve just been really accepting of me and they know the position I was in and they really enjoyed being able to work with me.”

But the NFL opportunities eventually came to an end, which is when the CFL opportunity came up.

Dolegala said his agent told him the Riders were interested and he had no qualms about coming north.

“I still want to play football, that’s the thing. I thought this would be my best opportunity,” he said. “I had (former Rider) Naaman (Roosevelt) up here (and ex-Hamilton Tiger-Cat) Luke Tasker up here. I knew guys who played in this league and they just told me how much fun it was and they could still make a living do it.

“(Roosevelt) is a guy who has been in it and done it for years so the knowledge I got from him is invaluable.”

In order to get the ball rolling when it came to coming to play football for a new country, Dolegala made sure to come up early.

“I wanted to come up a week early and I wanted to get my feet wet up here. Saskatchewan — I had no idea where that was until I punched it into Google maps a couple months ago. I wanted to get up here a bit early (and) figure out what Regina is like,” Dolegala said.

He has even found an appreciation for the rules that make the CFL unique.

“It’s nice that the hashes have been narrowed to what they were so those field throws aren’t as far, so it’s more of what I’m accustomed to down south. It’s nice and it’s a lot of fun with the waggle motions and guys moving all over the place. It’s really fun football,” Dolegala said.

After years of trying to prove he can be a pro quarterback, Dolegala is enjoying being thrust into competition against Mason Fine for the backup quarterback job.

“That’s what we come out here to do — we come out here to compete. I’m just looking forward to those (pre-season) games and show people what I can do,” Dolegala said.

He and Fine are expected to get a quarter of action in Friday’s pre-season game against the B.C. Lions, with Fajardo slated to play the first half.

Game time on TSN is 8 p.m. The Green Zone pre-game show starts at 6 p.m., and the post-game show begins immediately after the contest.