A Foothills Falcon linebacker proved he won’t have much difficulty memorizing the intricacies of a university football team’s defensive schemes.
After all, Gavin Millard, who signed with the Queen’s University Gaels on May 18, is an honour student and will study engineering at the post-secondary school in Kingston, Ont.
“One of the reasons I wanted to go to Queen’s is because it is a very academic school,” said Millard, after the signing ceremony at the Comp. “My parents (Brent and Pauline) always urged me to have an academic-type career – to go to university and get an education.”
Millard has a 91 per cent average at Foothills and is currently taking AP Calculus and English as well as Physics 30.
Queen’s defensive assistant Ben D’Andrea got a glimpse of Millard when the Falcons won their provincial championship in Edmonton last November.
“The fact he is a big kid, moves well and can play multiple positions is definitely a good thing,” D’Andrea said. “He can help us out in multiple spots — defensive end, outside linebacker and inside linebacker.”
He also saw some of Millard’s game film — which sometimes has to be taken with a grain of salt because it can be a Greatest Hits package for a player.
“What you can see from their good plays is how they read the play properly, how they fit in, how they are doing schematically as well,” D’Andrea said. “Especially for a defensive player it’s how good of a tackler are they, how well are they reading the play… What Gavin brings to the table is exactly what we are looking for in a tackler.”
It also helps that Millard is a quick on his feet upstairs as well.
“He’s also very good academic student, going into engineering,” D’Andrea said. “He definitely fits the Queen’s profile.”
Millard will have plenty of company.
At present there are 19 engineering students on the Gaels’ roster.
The 17-year-old Millard started playing football as an Atom with the Foothills Eagles. He was an offensive lineman throughout his minor career before becoming a linebacker in high school.
It wasn’t until his Grade 11 year that he thought he might play at the university level.
“The Foothills Falcons coaches brought me along a lot when I became a linebacker. Coach (Bryan) Brandford helped me a lot — he was amazing.
“Switching to linebacker made football a lot better.”
Better for him, but not so great for runningbacks as Millard would meet them like a freight train going through Okotoks – stopping all traffic going his way.
He comes from his smarts honestly.
His father Brent played for the legendary Senator Riley Mustangs of High River in the 1980s that won their conference. Also he is an engineer. His mother, Pauline, is a teacher at Heritage Heights School.
“We are very proud of him,” Brent said.
Mom agreed, even if it is tough to see the 200-plus pound baby of the family go across country for university.
“We are glad that he is going where he wants to go,” Pauline said. “It’s his dream — vision — to go out and get academics and continue to play football, a game he loves.”
Queen’s finished with a 5-3 record last year and lost to the Carleton Ravens in the quarter-finals of the OUA (Ontario University Athletics) post-season.
Millard is the fourth graduating member of the provincial championship Falcons to sign with a university team.
Previously, quarterback Trey Kellogg and runningback Landon Rose signed with the UBC Thunderbirds and defensive back Brendan Lowry signed with the NCAA Div. II Simon Fraser University Clan.
