CREDIT: NATHAN DENETTE/ THE CANADIAN PRESS
David Lee celebrates the Argonauts’ Grey Cup victory against the Calgary Stampeders with a teammate. The championship was the team’s 16th and Lee’s first (ever) championship win.

CFL team Toronto Argonauts won its 16th Grey Cup championship last November; it was the first championship win for defenseman David Lee. His star is on the rise and will probably shine for years to come.

I didn't report on the win, nor did I have the opportunity to profile David last year. But a fateful connection I have with him (I was classmates with his wife in grade school), allowed for this to happen.

I spoke with David and his wife Elizabeth (née Mainse) on the phone about his past, his present and his future.

David, a London native, has been playing football since high school, but before that he was handling a different kind of football on the field.

“My dad, he actually played semipro soccer, had me playing soccer and I played that for years,” he said. “I started to figure out, closer to Grade 9, that when I got bigger I was getting yellow cards all the time.”

“I loved to run people over.”

He ended up switching sports and began playing football at the start of high school. Only one problem.

“Hitting people — I'd done it a little bit in hockey and soccer and I enjoyed it, but these football guys were a lot bigger than the people I was hitting before,” he said.

It wasn't love at first play; in fact he was terrified at first.

At the end of his high school career, he chose to play another four years for the Western Mustangs, because of its proximity to home and “good coaching staff.”

Towards the end of the season in his fourth year, David started to gain attention from CFL scouts, resulting in an invite to the CFL combines.

“I talked to a bunch of teams, talked to the Argonauts quite a bit. I was actually hoping to get picked up in the CFL draft but I didn't get drafted,” he said.

A disappointment he found hard to deal with.

“It was tough because a lot of my identity was tied up in that ... it allowed me to re-centre myself and identify myself in my faith in Jesus [Christ] first. It really set me up to deal with al the ups and downs and the CFL because I know that when it comes down to it, my whole life isn't tied up in football.”

In fact, when he didn't get drafted, he took a landscaping job to make money for his impending marriage to sweetheart Elizabeth.

“I was actually mowing a lawn when I got a phone call from my dad,” he recalled. “He tells me, ‘Jim Barker, the general manger of the Toronto Argonauts, just called and he wants you to call him back.'”

He compared the experience with a story of two men who built their houses — one on sand, and the other on a rock:

“If you're building [your life] on something that isn't solid like football, when it shifts, everything that you build on that platform falls down. If you start to build things on the Lord, everything that you build on there is going to be there forever and your identity can't be shaken.”

“[Not getting drafted] was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said. “It really centred me and really rooted [me] before I went on this journey.

David doesn't think much has changed since winning the Grey Cup. However, he did bring up a funny tidbit about his football career.

“I kind of thought I was a bit of a jinx, because in high school, every year we got to the finals and lost. We got to the finals several times in college and we lost.”

Needless to say he was nervous about the championship. “We're probably going to get here and lose, that's what I've done my whole life. To actually be able to win it and kind of break that [jinx] I think was really special for me,” he said.

“To be able to win it, to have my parents and my wife come to the field and hand them the Grey Cup, and know that my name is going to be engraved on this thing forever is such a good feeling. It was a ‘dream come true' moment.”

Football isn't going to be in David's life blueprint forever, though. “You never know in the CFL. Sometimes you show up and guys are gone. There's no job security when it comes to the CFL,” he said. “If I can play, I'm going to keep playing unless the Lord tells me otherwise.”

The 23-year-old has other aspirations on his plate.

“One of the things I'd really love to do is start up a business in Africa, and instead of pulling the profits out of the country, reinvesting the profits back in the country and using it as an outreach tool,” he explained.

In fact, the footballer and his wife will be taking a trip to Uganda in the new year to lay down the foundation for this dream.

“Instead of random NGOs serving the needs of nations like handing out food ... [we're hoping to] see the church reaching out and being able to meet those humanitarian needs and the evangelistic needs.”

But while he plays football, David will continue forming his African plans and maybe pursue an MBA at some point, with hopes of attaining a Chartered Accountant designation.

He's actually often thought of as the underdog, or so his wife says.

“At first he didn't get drafted [by the CFL] but then got picked up by the Toronto Argonauts. He got put on the practice roster for the first two weeks, so he had to work his way to prove who he was, and then he made it,” Elizabeth said. “Even this year, he had to earn his spot as one of the starting defensemen, and [on September 14] he had the best game of his CFL career [where] he got one of the game-winning sacks.”

Despite all this, humble David hasn't had an “I made it moment” yet.

“I know I can still get better, I know I can still contribute in a bigger way,” he said. “I feel like I'm always learning and trying to take that next step. I think by no means I've gotten to the place where I'm like, ‘I made it.'”

For David, his supporters are what helped him become a professional athlete.

“There's going to be people that are going to encourage you, and there's going to be people who are going to tell you that you can't do it. I would say don't listen to the people who tell you can't do it, and feed off those people that encourage you.”

Supplied by: Elizabeth Lee
David and wife Elizabeth hold the Cup together after the win.