Regina’s Ethan Ball bringing NCAA experience to CFL combine

Ethan Ball is bringing some unique experience to the CFL Combine.

The Regina safety has had the opportunity to play in front of some of the biggest crowds in college football as a member of the North Dakota Fighting Hawks – a NCAA division-one school.

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That includes a game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in front of around 90,000 fans back in 2022.

“It was a surreal day. I was so lucky that some of my family got to come down and watch me,” Ball said.

“Just walking out into the stadium, I just couldn’t help but think about my time in Regina as a little kid throwing the ball on the street with my dad in Lakeridge in the north end, and then playing at Leible Field in front of maybe a couple hundred people to walking out and seeing 90,000 people.

Ethan Ball spent one season with the Calgary Dinos after four years playing with the North Dakota Fighting Hawks. (David Moll/Calgary Dinos)

“It wasn’t even the sound that got me. Obviously it was loud, but Mosaic Stadium gets loud too. It was more so just seeing that many people in one building at one time.”

Now, after a season back in Canada with the Calgary Dinos, Ball is planning to showcase his talents to CFL scouts in Regina during the CFL combine.

“It’s a dream come true. It’s exciting, and feels like everything is coming full circle with the combine being in Regina as well. I have been around the CFL my whole life, with my dad being involved with the Roughriders and sports in Saskatchewan,” Ball said.

“It’s cool to kind of live out my dream of potentially playing in the league here, and this is kind of the first step to doing so. I’m very excited.”

The combine allows the top CFL prospects to work out and interview with teams ahead of April’s draft. Ball is one of four Dinos who will be at the combine this year.

The football journey for Ball started like plenty of other kids – watching the sport on television with his dad.

“I remember being in our living room, and I always had those squishy yellow footballs that the Riders always threw out at their games, and I had so many of those in the house. We would be watching the San Diego Chargers on TV, because that was our team, and he would wear his (Philip) Rivers jersey and I’d wear my (LaDainian Tomlinson) and jump over the couch like LT did into the end zone on those one-yard goal-line plunges,” Ball said.

After playing as a receiver and a defensive back with the Riffel Royals, Ball had good options for university football.

While he did have workouts in the U.S., Ball said he didn’t think the right opportunity was there for him, so he originally committed to the Dinos as a wide receiver. But late in the process, he received a call from North Dakota.

“I was sitting in calculus class at Riffel High School and my dad called me and said, ‘Hey, (the coach) just called and they really bumped up the offer. They want you, but want you to play safety,’” Ball said.

“It all kind of came to fruition. I told Calgary that was my decision, and they were very supportive at the time, and the rest is history. I switched from receiver to defensive back, and I’ve never looked back.”

Agreeing to go down to the U.S. to play football not only meant learning a new position, but also switching from Canadian rules to the American version of the game.

“It was difficult to say the least… It was a huge adjustment playing safety, and then playing that high of a level in division one, and then on top of that I had never played the American game before,” Ball said.

“It was a lot of things coming at me at once. That first year, my head was spinning. You don’t really think you’re ever going to figure it out, and then by the end of your first year you’re kind of figuring it out.”

Ball spent four seasons with the Fighting Hawks, then elected to come back to Canada and play with the Dinos for his CFL draft year.

“I wanted to make the move so I could play Canadian football again and get a season under my belt of seeing the waggle and playing in a Canadian defence, which I had never really done before, minus maybe a couple snaps on defence in high school,” Ball said.

“In North Dakota we liked to rotate our safeties throughout my whole career there, so it was really valuable to come in and play 60, 70, 80 snaps in a football game and get my feet wet and comfortable. Also just being a leader for the guys and having guys lean on me and my experience down south and be able to develop my leadership skills in my last year of college football was real valuable to me.”

Now as the combine and draft draw nearer, Ball said he hopes to get a call from a CFL team to become a pro.

“It would be a dream come true, and something I’ve dreamed about and thought about and worked for since I was a little kid, so it would mean the world to me. It would mean all the work paid off. That would just be the beginning of that chapter and hopefully not the end,” Ball said.

The 2025 CFL Draft takes place on April 29.