Charbel Dabire is a “glue guy” who has stuck around.
At 26, the personable defensive lineman is one of the more-experienced members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders — someone who has been with the CFL team since 2019.
“I remember my first training camp, seeing people who had been here for four or five years and just being in awe and thinking, ‘They’ve been doing this for a long time,’ ” Dabire says.
“Fast forward to now. It feels like I just came in not that long ago and now I’m in their shoes.
“It definitely feels unreal, but I’m loving every day.”
He is much-loved in return.
“Charbel is a great dude to have in the locker room — a great, positive guy,” quarterback Shea Patterson says, “and he’s a heck of a player, so I’m glad to be his teammate again.”
Patterson and Dabire had previously crossed paths at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
That has been one of many stops along the way for Dabire, who was born in the West African country of Burkina Faso.
“My dad works for the UN so, as a kid, I used to move every one to two years,” recalls the 6-foot-1, 300-pound son of Ernest and Martine Dabire.
“That’s one part of being very social. I had to be able to meet a lot of people and be able to be outgoing and friendly.
“I was always a big guy, so I didn’t want to be a scary guy, too. It would make it harder to go to new schools.
“I just love to smile. I just look at every day as a great day and I try to keep a positive attitude every time.
“Nothing can ever go too bad. I’ve got a great life right now, a great opportunity, so I try to take it one day at a time.”
Or one stop at a time.
“I was born in Burkina Faso, but left when I was two,” he recalls. “I was in Montreal. I was in Calgary. I went back to a couple of places in West Africa — Senegal and Ghana — and then came back to Toronto for my ninth-grade year (at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in Mississauga).
“Once I got to Toronto, I started playing football. Then I got recruited by Buffalo, so I left my family and went to a boarding school down there for a year.
“I went to Florida for IMG and then went to junior college in New Mexico. From there, I went to New York.”
Staten Island, N.Y., to be specific, where Dabire played NCAA football at Wagner College after attending the New Mexico Military Institute for one year.
“It was a military school, but I was there for football,” he recalls. “They were like, “It’s not going to be too military for you guys,’ but it was definitely military.
“You had to do 4 a.m. wakeups and do your range of challenges. You had to stand (at attention). Your room had to be a certain way. Your clothes had to be a certain way.
“It was definitely hard in the beginning but, after a while, I grew into it and got my rankings and everything. I felt like I wanted to go into the army.
“I was a pre-med kid, so I wanted to be a doctor of health in the military. My mom didn’t like the idea — she hated the idea — so, after a while, it was, ‘I’ll just move away from that and maybe it’ll happen in the future.’
“It was definitely a great experience.”
That is one of many great experiences that he has packed into barely a quarter-century of existence.
“I was actually big into soccer,” Dabire notes. “I played with the French youth team. My cousin plays for the national American team and a team in Saudi Arabia. I was big on sports. My brother (Eddy) always pushed me to be very competitive.
“In the ninth grade, funny enough, I came in my first day and was mistaken for a football player and then got into it. That first year, I was moving so much and meeting so many new people that I realized how amazing it was and I started learning more about it.
“It happened so fast that I went down to the States, once I got recruited, and I was learning so much more and seeing all the things you could do (with football) and seeing all the places it could take you.
“It was a great opportunity. Meeting so many people opened so many doors for me.”
One of his first football teammates, in fact, was a lanky receiver named Kian Schaffer-Baker — a fellow Roughrider since 2021.
“It’s a small world,” Dabire marvels, “and it has come around full circle.”
A small world, yes, but he still understands the vastness of the globe better than most.
“I’ve gone back to Africa quite a few times,” Dabire says. “The last time I was there was last off-season, actually, because my parents just moved to Senegal.
“I was able to go back and see some family. It’s always nice to go back, because it’s a big change of pace. Everything is slower and calmer.”
In Riderville, the calming presence of Dabire is noted and appreciated. Nothing can ever get too stressful, thanks to his lighthearted, kind-hearted presence.
“Charbel is a glue guy,” Head Coach Craig Dickenson says. “He holds people together. He’s one of those guys who is worth his weight in gold.
“He can play numerous positions. He can play on the edge, he can play inside, and he’s a good special-teams player.
“He’s a great guy in the meetings and the players love him. He’s an absolute pleasure to coach.
“He brings a lot of extra work to the table. He’s always in the weight room. He’s always doing extra work on the field.
“When you ask Charbel to do something, he says, ‘Yes sir, Coach, and what can I do to do more?’
“I think guys see that and they learn from it, so I think he does a good job of keeping the group together.”
He is, after all, someone who has it together — a young man whose perspective belies his years.
“I feel like I’ve been living the experience,” Dabire reflects. “I take everything as a blessing.
“I never thought that, as a kid born in West Africa, I’d be able to come to Canada and be able to be in this environment with people who have been doing this all their lives.
“I’m just grateful for all the experiences. I’m just loving every minute of it.”
