At the first practice of spring drills for the football team Tuesday, one helmet crested far above the others on the defensive line.
And next to the big, wide bodies on the line, his lean, muscular frame seemed a bit out of place.
The unorthodox frame belonged to Frantz Dorsainvil, a rising senior forward for the Oregon basketball team, and it was his first time on a football field.
“He wants to give football a shot,” coach Mike Bellotti said. “I’m excited to see what he can do. He’s the kind of body type you like to see out there.”
Dorsainvil said that Bellotti has told him in passing this year that he should “come see him and talk,” about trying football. He said he never gave it much thought, until Monday in study hall when a member of the football team told him that tryouts were starting, and he should come out.
Which Oregon football player? That’s just one of the many things that Dorsainvil will try to learn this week.
“I don’t know his name,” he said. “Big guy, long hair, one of those Hawaiian guys.”
Defensive line coach Michael Gray was one of the few people who didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see Dorsainvil giving football a shot.
“There’s a lot of power forwards that play in the NFL, a lot of guys that played basketball in high school or college,” Gray said. “I think Charles Barkley played football in high school.”
But Dorsainvil was, admittedly, a little lost out on the practice field Tuesday.
“He’s got a long way to go,” Gray said. “He’s playing defensive end and everything, even which hand goes down, it’s all new to him. It’s all foreign. It’s like Chinese to him.”
The closest Dorsainvil ever got to a football field in his hometown of Montreal was rugby. He said he was always a fan of Montreal’s Canadian Football League team, the Alouettes, but thought the physical nature of the game could jeopardize his basketball career.
“I’ve thought about it, since I was in high school, but people kept telling me that it would take off my legs and since I played basketball I thought it was a bad idea,” he said. “But I think it’s a good sport. It’s worth a try.”
The coaches seemed supportive, and Dorsainvil said they’ve told him to just work hard and be patient with himself.
At one point during drills Tuesday, defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti stopped a drill to work one-on-one with Dorsainvil. He grabbed Dorsainvil by the front of his jersey with both hands and jerked him back and forth, explaining to him that “it’s OK to use your hands in this game, Frantz.”
“You’ve got to be mean,” he added. “Otherwise you can’t play this game.”
That transition would seem to be hardest to make for a basketball player: to go from a game that penalizes rough handling of an opponent to one where that kind of physical aggression is required.
But Dorsainvil says that he can’t wait to hit somebody. In fact, he said that twice while being interviewed after practice on Tuesday.
But first, he has to learn the game and its terminology a little better. Dorsainvil said that his only goal right now is to learn the plays and what they’re called.
“By next week I’m going to learn all those plays, and those words that they are calling those plays,” Dorsainvil said. “I want to learn them by next week and see if I can start doing those drills with the team.”
Gray said that it’s hard to tell how well someone will take to the game of football until they get a chance to play full contact. Dorsainvil says he’s ready and willing to hit someone, but Tuesday was a no-pads practice. Friday, the teams first day of full pads, will tell the tale, Gray said.
“That will be the true test,” he said. “Then we’ll have some contact, real body contact, and we’ll see how he responds to that. That’s going to be key.”
But no matter how well he does, or how much he ends up enjoying football, Dorsainvil said he is still a basketball player first.
“It’s my first love,” he said. “I’ll never give up on that.”
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