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By Arash Madani, Special to CW
It was three October’s ago and mom and son were on the road again. To Calgary this time. It was old hat for them to be away from home. Vanessa’s youngest boy had bounced around the Prairies and Northern Ontario playing junior hockey as a teenager. When you’re 6-foot-3 and still growing as a young defenseman, there’s demand for you. Zack left home early. Drafted by Swift Current in the WHL. Then, a third round pick in the MJHL at the age of 15. The first stop was in Steinbach. From there, it was off to Thunder Bay. A lot of miles logged up and down the highways for Vanessa and Zack, skates and sticks packed in the hockey bag.
By the fall of 2023, it was a different set of pads and helmet in the trunk of the car on that drive to Southern Alberta. There had been a bunch of injuries, and surgeries. Hockey had felt like a business, even at that age. The previous year, Zach returned home and somehow stumbled into a football practice with the Winnipeg Rifles of the CJFL. By then he was 6-foot-5 and tipped the scales at 300 pounds. A natural fit for defensive line. Vanessa’s boy dominated from the jump and schools across U SPORTS took notice. The Dinos recruited him heavily. On that October trip, Zack liked what he saw and heard. With the program, with what an outdoorsman like himself could do away from the field.
Photo courtesy Zack Davis.
“I can play, I can be out in the mountains, I’m still kind of close to home,” he told his mother on the drive home.
Davis told Calgary’s coaches he was coming. “It was a set deal,” he’d later say.
A little while after committing, mother and son went shopping to get supplies to get Zack all set for university. Not unlike what so many families are doing this week for first-year students beginning life on-campus all over the country.
Except it was then, on that shopping trip, Zack suddenly got cold feet.
“I wanted to be home,” he says. And the decision had nothing to do with football.
**
Every athlete locks in at a different point on gameday. For Zack Davis, it’s the moment he spots the hint of enemy colours.
“As soon as I see the other team’s bus pull up, I’m ready,” he says.
Davis is a throwback. Lives in his playbook, the weight room and for R&R, prefers to be on the water, fishing. Any chance he can get, he does that. On the field, Davis gets his joy beating double teams and stopping the ball carrier. Going viral or jumping on the latest TikTok trend? He could care less.
“When things get grimey, when things get intense, I’m at my best,” he says. “I love 1st and 10, and you know it’s a run. There’s no better feeling than stopping the run and setting the edge.”
This season, Davis will be the anchor of Calgary’s defensive front. He has, at last, landed with the Dinos for his first Canada West season. An improbable journey that went from the ice, to the Rifles, to, rather incredibly, two runs with his hometown CFL Blue Bombers and now, full circle, at U of C’s campus. And along the way, a tragic turn that has shaped the path of a young man who often repeats a favourite mantra as the mentor to the fresh-faced players new to university football: “I want everyone on this team to eat off the same plate.”
Davis is ready for his first season of Canada West football. Photo courtesy University of Calgary Dinos.
**
It was not long after the calendar flipped from 2022 to 2023, right around the time Zack had come back from Thunder Bay, knowing in his heart of hearts his hockey career was over, that his life changed on a dime.
There had been another injury, just a few weeks after finishing rehabbing yet another surgery, and he decided it was just time to stay put for the first time since being drafted out of bantam. Zack hadn’t seen much of his parents or his brother Nick, some two years older. He just wanted the comforts of home.
And more than that, something felt strange whenever he’d call his parents. Mom kept going to the doctor. Vanessa kept evading questions. Doug Davis, Nick and Zack’s dad and a former hockey player, was quiet about it.
“I knew something was going on,” Zack said.
It was more than just something. In mid-January of 2023, Vanessa dropped the bomb on her sons that she was battling breast cancer and it had spread to the lymph nodes. Zack’s reflex was denial. He didn’t want to believe the news he was hearing.
“It didn’t seem real. It didn’t feel real,” he said.
Zack on the the ice with his mother, Vanessa. Photo courtesy Zack Davis.
Suddenly home for the first time, Zack that winter and spring went from defenseman to chauffeur. He drove Vanessa to her appointments, to chemo treatments, to follow-ups. He’d do the errands. He picked up her meds. By the summer of 2023, Vanessa was living her new normal and Zack had found football and the Rifles junior team.
“Still had that competitive edge that’s hard to drop when you’re an athlete,” he said with a grin.
Mom would come watch his games and loved it. Her friends from way back, at the University of Manitoba nursing program, called her ‘Ness.’ Softball and ringette were her games when she played, but being sports mom gave her much more joy later in her life. And with Zach stopping the run with the Rifles, it became the first time Ness could regularly watch her son compete in-person. It did a world of good for her psyche. Late that season is when that first recruiting trip to Calgary went down and the decision by Zack to stay at home with mom.
All the while, Vanessa’s health improved and by the following spring was deemed cancer-free. That was right about the time her son was summoned into the general manager’s office at Blue Bombers headquarters. Rifles head coach Geordie Wilson had put in a call to Kyle Walters about this towering force on the team’s defensive front, who could benefit from being a territorial junior with the Bombers during training camp. Davis and head coach Mike O’Shea hit it off, and Zack was thrown into the fire at the pro level to learn and develop.
Photo courtesy Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Deer, meet headlights.
“It was a complete eye-opener. Like, this is the pros. I learned quick what it takes to go to the next level,” said Davis. He calls CFL training camps, “hell month.” The daily schedule goes from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for four weeks straight.
“They weed out the weak. You find out by the third day who wants to be there and who wants to quit,” he said.
Like his mother, Zack was determined. He took endless notes in meetings. Wanted to be a sponge and take everything in. Knew the more he’d learn and take from the experience would make him better in the long run. Rubbed shoulders with sure-fire hall of famer, Willie Jefferson. Watched how consummate pro, Jake Thomas went about his business.
When the classroom gave way to the field, watching from the seats at then-Investors Group Field was Ness. Elated. Her baby boy, practicing with the pros. Nobody cheered louder. See that No. 92 out there? “That’s my son,” she told fans watching training camp workouts.
“It was an amazing time for her to see me live out my childhood dream. For her to see that, it was special,” Zack said. “I’m really glad she was able to see that. I’ll forever be grateful for that.”
He left that 2024 CFL training camp, armed with a Ph.D in football. Intel, techniques, fundamentals, growth. Knew with another year under his belt, he could make an impact the next spring if he got the opportunity.
And then Vanessa’s cancer came back.
**
Photo courtesy Zack Davis
In January of 2025, Zack watched his mother’s illness worsen. She was in and out of the hospital again. On April 23, Vanessa was re-admitted. Four days later, she passed away – on the eve of Blue Bombers’ rookie camp.
Zack was in pieces.
“Football,” he says, “probably saved me.”
Zack used his second pro training camp as a distraction and a tribute to his late mother. But there were times reality hit. His teammates, these grown men battling for a roster spot and a livelihood, helped guide him through the dark times. Like the initial diagnosis, it didn’t feel real to him.
On the evening of May 15, the family held a function for Ness at the Gateway Rec Centre in Winnipeg, “celebrating her legacy.” O’Shea and five Blue Bombers players arrived to pay their respects.
“I’ll never forget that,” Davis says.
Nine days later, he played his first professional game, a 15-9 Winnipeg pre-season win at home. So many members of the Davis family were there for it. Everyone talked about how much Ness would have enjoyed it.
Davis suited up for the Blue Bombers in a pre-season win. Photo courtesy Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
On Friday night, Calgary open its 2026 Canada West football schedule at home against the UBC Thunderbirds. Zack Davis, now 23, is making his Dinos debut. With his tenacity, size, experience and willingness to embrace the grime and the run game, he’s expected to be a force in the conference this season.
It’ll be the first non-exhibition game Davis has played since his mother’s passing. It comes just shy of three years after he visited campus for the first time with Ness.
“She’d be very proud. She would be happy with how much I’ve grown and matured over the years,” says Zack. “I want to win. I want our team to win. I want everyone on this team to eat off the same plate. And I want to show the players the things I’ve learned from being in the pros. And to show everyone to buy-in. If everyone buys in, that’s how you build a winning culture.”
Eating off the same plate means that everyone gets theirs. It is not about individual recognition. When you win, the payoff will be for the collective. It’s a message Davis wants the incoming freshmen to hear. For those who may not have yet gotten a shot to play.
Davis has been the chauffeur before. Now, he’ll be driving this Dinos defense. Playing for his teammates. Playing for mom.
“I live through her now,” Zack says. “Everything I do now, she still helps me with it.”
Davis and his teammates at a training camp session in Canmore. The Dinos kick off a new Canada West season this Friday against UBC at McMahon Stadium. Photo courtesy Calgary Dinos.
About the Author
Well known to sports fans across Canada, Arash Madani is a national sports broadcaster who has travelled the world covering some of the biggest events in sport. Canada West is proud to welcome Arash as a contributor to its football coverage team for the 2026 season.
About Canada West:
Canada West has been Building Champions Since 1919. As the leading university athletic conference in the country, Canada West is home to student-athletes that excel in the classroom and their communities. The conference is comprised of 18 member institutions spanning from Victoria to Winnipeg, with over 3,200 student-athletes competing across 14 sports. Canada West’s mission is to train leaders and build champions by providing leadership in the delivery, regulation, and promotion of university level high performance sports programs throughout western Canada.