A Foothills Lions back made good on an off-season commitment to his teammates and now his dedication is beginning to bear fruit on the rugby pitch.
High River native Dustin Stradeski transformed his conditioning in the off-season and in doing so has dropped down to a lean 300 pounds in preparation for his first taste of Division II play in the Calgary Rugby Union.
“Jan. 1 I hit the gym up really hard and I’ve lost 52 pounds by running on the treadmill everyday for about three or four kilometres and pumping weights,” said Stradeski, who pumps iron six days a week. “I’m going hard out there and making an effort to be the best I can be.”
He’s not satisfied with what he’s accomplished and Stradeski said he expects to be down to his goal weight of 280 pounds by the end of June.
“Once I hit that 50-pound weight loss mark it has kind of (peaked), but I’m still in the gym and dieting and everything,” Stradeski said. “I was doing the South Beach Diet for a bit and now I’m just high protein and a lot of vegetables.”
The Lions’ addition of a second division team for the 2012 season inspired the 26-year-old to dedicate himself to improved stamina after receiving a strong message from Lions head coach Darcy Gallant before the season.
“Darcy said if I didn’t come out with fitness this year I wouldn’t be playing Division II, that I’d be playing Division III,” Stradeski said. “I told the guys last year was a poor excuse of playing (by) me because I would do one run then I’d be tired and have to sit on the bench.
“I do less damage when I’m on the bench than when I’m on the field so I promised the guys I’d get down to a healthy weight and play hard for them this year.”
Stradeski plays as an inside or outside centre amongst the Lions backs, positions usually allocated to the more diminutive rugby players. But, the Holy Trinity Academy graduate has the pace to play the position despite his much larger frame.
“I power through and hit everybody and try to make it 20 to 30 yards every time I touch the ball and it’s a factor because I can suck in more guys that come to tackle me and it gives our team on the back line an overlap to swing it out wide and gives us a chance to score every time,” he said.
“I’ve always been a back, I was a little lighter in high school, but I’ve always been a back.”
The leaner Stradeski feels lighter on the pitch already.
“It actually took a while in practice to get used to the acceleration because I was so used to leaving early on the ball to make it up the ball and now I leave early and (I get there) too early sometimes and we’ve got to reset,” Stradeski said. “I’m definitely a lot faster.”
It’s a good thing he took his conditioning more seriously as the competition found at the Division II level of the Calgary Rugby Union doesn’t leave a lot of room for weaknesses.
“Division II guys know how to hit, they tackle me low, they’re smarter when they are tackling me,” Stradeski said. “I can’t make it as far as I do in Division III on the field in holding the ball and running with the ball wise, but other than that it’s just a higher level of rugby.”
Lions back and team captain Nathan Marquardt has noticed a marked difference in his teammate.
“He used to be a straight line runner and held it like a football, crunched down on it and just hit as many guys as possible,” Marquardt said. “This year he’s running at gaps, he’s using angles. Once he’s broken the line he’s offloading the pass to our guys which is giving us incredible yards.”
Having a big, agile, mobile body on the wing gives the Lions options with the ball.
“It’s a huge thing, especially when we use him a couple times inside and he does the big crash and then he does a fake and they bite on that,” Marquardt said. “They’ll bite on him and we can swing it out wide or he breaks the line with his strength and size and we play from there and it’s open field. I would say that our opponents definitely have something else to chew on when they get a bunch of smaller, fitter guys and then you have Dustin who maintains the speed we do, but with the size and strength of a large man.”
