Photo: David Larking/Regina Rams
Canadian offensive lineman Riley Schick participated in the 2026 Dream Bowl, which he’s hoping will give him an early leg up on the competition leading into the 2026 CFL Draft.
“Getting the invite was a true blessing in its own — a kid coming from Lumsden, Saskatchewan with 2,000 people going to Texas for a football showcase, which is the best place for football,” Schick told The SportsCage.
“The practice field we played on was a high school that had seating that was bigger than any high school field I’ve ever seen. Talking to one of my other buddies — he was down there for a different showcase — and he said that stadium sat as much as Mosaic did and it was a high school stadium. It’s different down there, for sure.”
The Dream Bowl is a collegiate showcase game designed for players to perform in front of scouts before entering the professional ranks. Originally founded in Virginia, it has since moved to Texas with this year’s game taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, which serves as the home for the Dallas Cowboys.
The schedule included meetings, practices, a banquet, and a full stadium tour. The game itself then took place on Sunday, January 11.
Schick noticed scouts from a number of professional teams observing practices at the Dream Bowl, including the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Calgary Stampeders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, and Indianapolis Colts.
The six-foot-one, 300-pound blocker was pleased with the opportunity to play guard at the event, which allowed him to show off his versatility. He has almost exclusively played centre in Canadian university football.
“I think I did very well. Listening to what my agent has said, everything went very well and I was able to get some film at guard, which I haven’t been able to do,” Schick said.
“Pretty much my whole career I’ve been locked in at centre, but getting that guard film out there for CFL teams gets rid of that question mark that’s over my head, ‘Oh, can he play other positions? He’s only ever played centre.’ Going down there and getting a chance to play guard, especially against tough competition, really played in my favour.”
Schick played four seasons with the Regina Thunder in the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) and was named a Prairie Football Conference all-star three times and a CJFL All-Canadian twice. He has since spent two seasons with the Regina Rams, earning a Canada West all-star selection in 2025.
Playing four-down football for the first time provided some challenges for Schick, though he felt he made the adjustment relatively quickly.
“The hand-punch timing’s different, how many steps you can get on the ground before contact is different,” Schick said. “The speed at which things happen — the game speed is the same, but the speed at which things happen is a lot sooner, so you’re getting that pass rush a lot sooner, you get into contact a lot sooner — little things like that, you have to get used to.”
Schick is set to participate in the CFL Invitational Combine and is hoping his performance will earn him an invitation to the National Combine in Edmonton March 27 through 29. The Dream Bowl provided an opportunity to strap on the pads ahead of the Canadian showcase event.
“I think it was a good checkpoint, too, because right now you are in the dog days of what training is. We wake up every morning, we run early in the morning, we lift after work. It is the dog days, so being able to go down there and play football, get to bang around a little bit definitely gets you out of the mindset,” Schick said.
“I’m really excited for the next opportunity, but being able to do this in general is awesome, so telling myself that I am excited and that I can prove it to myself, because growing up, I never played football till grade 10 and I played nine-man football, and then I never received any scholarships out of high school. I was a walk-on on the Regina Thunder and I started ever since, so I’ve had a lot of people tell me that I can’t do it.”