Ontario Prospect Challenge follow-up profile: Braedon Ashford

ONTARIO PROSPECT CHALLENGE

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Position: OL
Height/Weight: 6’1”, 240 Ibs
Teams: Hamilton Ironmen, Saltfleet District High School
Commitment: N/A
Official Visits: N/A
Consideration: N/A
Class: 2017

As the game of football progresses, it’s often led by a change in its players.

This is true not just for football but for any major professional sport too.

As the players evolve, the game must keep up, resulting in what drastic rule changes, the majority of which are aimed at managing bigger, faster, stronger athletes, while protecting them.

At an amateur level, the trickle down effect is immense, as team needs and the changing game dictate the kind of player that is able to make the next step.

For Braedon Ashford, a young offensive lineman for the Hamilton Ironmen and Saltfleet District High School, the changing dynamics have given him something different to aspire to than players before him.

“I try to model my game after Michael Oher and Peter Dyakowski,” he said.

Oher, an offensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans, is credited for creating space and protection due to quick feet and athletic ability. While he is a 300-pound-plus athlete, he’s a part of a new generation of NFL talent that makes defensive plays with athletic ability, rather than brute strength.

Dyakowski, the same height and weight as Oher, also makes an impact on the game through foot speed and smarts, having been crowned the CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman and CBC’s Canada’s Smartest Person.

“These men have made me look at the Offensive Line in a different way,” Ashford said, reinforcing the need to adapt, “Instead of big slow men on the field, my vision has changed to leaner, bigger, faster, stronger men to block for the backfield.”

In order to try and become a player of that ilk, Ashford is dedicating his summer to working out with Sports Specific Training, whose seven Ontario facilities work alongside athletes in various sports to help take their conditioning to the next level.

This dedication is a part of a series of steps Ashford hopes to take in order to improve for next year’s Ontario Prospect Challenge (OPC) and beyond, hoping to someday take his game to the CIS or NCAA.

“I have the capability and technique to get myself to a different level,” he said when speaking on his collegiate aspirations.

Having already played for his senior high school football team, Ashford hopes to continue to improve this summer with his Ironmen club in order to continue to make strides in the upcoming high school football season.

Ashford admits he just wants to “showcase [his] talents to people.”

With a dedication to adapt to the changing game, he’s on the right path.

Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.

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