For all the stratospheric statistics Mason Fine has posted, one yard stands out.
The front yard.
That is where Fine refined the quarterbacking skills that enabled him to post eye-popping numbers in high school and college football and eventually become a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“My goal when I was in the sixth grade was to be a high school quarterback,” Fine, 26, recalled during a respite at Coors Light Riders Training Camp. “So my dad took me to a camp and I started working on my fundamentals out in the yard.”
The camp to which Fine referred was strictly for quarterbacks and held at the University of Oklahoma.
Josh Heupel, a former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback who was then an assistant coach with the long-time NCAA powerhouse, took note of Fine’s attitude and aptitude during the summer that preceded his Grade 6 year.
“At the time, we couldn’t really afford to go to all the camps or for me to have a private coach, so me and my dad would stay out in the yard,” Fine said.
“When we went to that (Oklahoma) camp, Josh Heupel taught me the fundamentals of how to throw a football. I went back home and wrote down everything I could remember on a piece of paper and I hung that on my wall.”
He also hung on every word uttered by his father.
“My dad never played football,” Dale Fine’s proud son said. “There was a little bit of it on my mom’s side but, as far as my immediate family, we had no idea. So, luckily, we just played out in the yard.
“I like telling the story of when I went to my first football practice. I had my pads wrong in my pants and stuff. But I started developing and I wanted to be a good quarterback through high school.
“I remember I went to another camp and a guy said, ‘Man, you have a really good shot at playing college football. You have a natural knack for throwing the football. Who’s your quarterback coach? You have to be working with somebody.’
“I said, ‘I don’t have a quarterback coach. I just throw with my dad in the yard and we go over stuff and he makes me throw.’
“He was like, “Oh. Where did your dad play college ball?’ I said, ‘My dad has never played football before in his life.’
“So that’s where it came from — just throwing the football out in the yard with my dad.”
All of that happened in the Oklahoma community of Peggs, where 800-some people reside.
Because there is not a scholastic option in Peggs beyond Grade 8, Fine had to attend high school at a nearby community.
Next stop: Locust Grove, Okla. Population: 1,400.
At the outset of Fine’s freshman year, he was 5-foot-9 and only 115 pounds, so he started as a receiver.
The head coach, Matt Hennesy, took note of Fine’s athleticism and strong throwing arm and used him to run the ball, catch the ball and even throw the ball on specially designed plays.
Remarkably, Fine threw for 600-plus yards as a Grade 9 member of the Locust Grove Pirates without lining up at quarterback.
But when he did become the starting signal-caller as a sophomore … boom!
Over three seasons as the No. 1 quarterback at Locust Grove, Fine established Oklahoma all-time records for passing yards (13,081) and touchdown passes (166). The latter total tied him for fifth all-time among high school quarterbacks in the United States. The yardage tally placed him eighth.
He threw an astonishing 71 TD passes for Locust Grove as a junior and connected for 53 more scores the following year.
Along the way, he became the first two-time winner of Oklahoma’s Gatorade Player of the Year award.
“Once I got to high school, my dad helped me here and there, but he just sat back,” Fine recalled. “He was a parent at that time. He never really tried to coach me in high school and college, but he was always there supporting me.”
The same could be said for Fine’s mother (Terrah) and younger sister (Adrianne).
Adrianne has emulated her brother by being heavily involved in sports at Locust Grove High School, from which she is poised to graduate.
“Her skill in volleyball and basketball was amazing to watch,” Adrianne’s brother said. “I was gone for six years, after college and figuring it out after COVID. I really missed her growing up a lot after seventh grade.
“So these last two years, being in Saskatchewan, I was able to go back home (during the off-season) to Oklahoma and watch her play a lot of basketball. It was sad that I never got to see her play volleyball, but she’s going to go to college. I don’t know where yet. She’s still undecided.”
Mason’s decision wasn’t as difficult. Because he is an inch under six feet tall, he was not inundated with college offers.
However, there was interest from University of North Texas, and understandably so.
As a freshman, Fine started nine games — one of which was against the UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) Roadrunners.
It was Fine, however, who provided the “Beep! Beep!” while scoring on an 80-yard touchdown run and setting a North Texas record for the longest play from scrimmage.
He followed up by throwing for 10,665 yards and 85 touchdowns over the next three seasons.
From there, the undrafted Fine landed a tryout with the Chicago Bears in August of 2020.
“The NFL was always kind of a longshot, just because of how I was (size-wise),’’ Fine said. “I put up numbers in college but really didn’t ever get that opportunity.
“But me and my dad always talked about me coming up here and playing in the CFL, even when I was in high school. We’d watch the CFL when it was on TV.”
Fine was introduced to CFL people when he played in the East-West Shrine Bowl, a post-season college all-star game for graduating players, following the 2019 season.
Roughriders General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations Jeremy O’Day was at the East-West game along with Kyle Carson, who had just been hired as the CFL team’s Director of Player Personnel. (Carson is now the Assistant GM.)
“They came up to me after the game, just showing how interested they were in me,” Fine recalled. “They said, ‘If the NFL doesn’t work out, we really want you to come here and get a CFL shot.
“Ever since I set foot here, I feel like I’ve been given a fair and equal opportunity to showcase my skill and I feel like it’s a really good situation. I’m just trying to keep getting better and better.
“I love the game and I feel like I do have great potential to be successful.”
Despite being the antithesis of a grizzled veteran, Fine is the longest-serving active Roughriders quarterback in terms of continuous time spent with the team.
Trevor Harris, a CFLer since 2012, was signed as a free agent on Feb. 14. The quarterbacks’ room also includes second-year Roughrider Jake Dolegala, newcomer Shea Patterson, and Fine.
The latter pivot has come a long way — in terms of progress made and kilometres travelled — from the Grade 4 student who saw Adrian Peterson run with the football for Oklahoma and said, “I want to try football, Dad.”
The very same Mason Fine who once aspired to be a high school quarterback proved to be one of the best of all time.
He carried that excellence into the collegiate ranks as a member of the appropriately named North Texas Mean Green.
So, really, he was a natural fit for the Roughriders — who are based some 2,000 kilometres away from the Fine family’s front yard.
“If you look at my closet, it has been green for seven years now,” Fine said with a laugh, “and there’s a lot of green in all of our closets.”
