Calgary pivot heads east

After a championship appearance in his senior year, Dante Djan is ready to start life with the STFX X-Men.

Dante Djan

Positions:
Quarterback

Height/Weight:
6’3, 215 lbs

Teams:
Henry Wise Wood Warriors (High School)
Central Memorial Rams (High School)
Calgary Stampeders (Atom, Peewee, Bantam, Midget)

Commitment:
St. Francis Xavier

Class:
2013

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Quarterback Danté Xavier-Djan played the first few years of his football career with the Calgary Stampeders. He started out at Atom and moved on through Peewee and Bantam. In Danté’s midget season, the Stampeders made it to the semi-final while he was nominated for Offensive MVP.

In his first year of high school, the Calgary pivot led the Central Memorial Rams to the city championship and won the Leadership Award for his efforts.

In his senior year, Danté transferred to Henry Wise Wood to play for the Warriors. That season brought one of the most memorable games of his career, when the Warriors defeated the St. Francis Browns in the semi-final match.

“It was an intense week of preparation for that game, and it was played under the lights which made it even better,” Dante recalls. “It went down to the wire, but we pulled through in the end.”

Though their playoff run ended in a loss to the Notre Dame Pride in the final, Danté was nominated for both Offensive and Team MVP titles that season.

Each year of high school, Danté was invited to Portland, Oregon to train with Greg Barton, a former CFL and NFL quarterback turned quarterback coach who has worked with several big names in professional football including Aaron Rodgers and Kellen Moore.

“It was a great experience to be able to train and compete with some of the best players from the States and to be coached by pro-level coaches and learn from them,” he says of last year’s trip, which he shared with several other Calgarian players.

Earlier this month, Danté moved across the country to Antigonish, Nova Scotia to play CIS football for the St. Francis Xavier X-Men.

“I really liked the coaches and players there when I took my recruiting visit,” he says of his decision to head East. “Coach Waterman really seemed like a player’s coach and the team seemed like a family out there.”

“It was a really young team on the upswing with some great guys and that really appealed to me.”

Danté considered all the details when he chose where he would play football for the next few years of his life.

“Their spread-style offense really suited my playing style as an athletic quarterback,” he explains.

Danté is an athlete away from the football field as well; he especially enjoys playing soccer and basketball with his friends. He is looking forward to bringing his skills to the X-Men while also studying business at the university.

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