News

Sometimes life aligns so perfectly, you can’t help but look on in wonder.

Dave Canales is experiencing that right now.

In the span of only 13 months, Canales went from a part-time assistant coach at a Los Angeles-area junior college to a job on the USC staff to offensive quality control coach with the Seahawks. Talk about a monster three-step climb for the 29-year-old in his first season on Seattle’s staff.

“It makes you realize that when God lines everything up, you can never plan it better than what he has for you,” Canales said. “It was definitely surreal — and it still is.”

The skyrocketing rise continues for Canales, who has a coveted job on an NFL staff just a season removed from one of the most entry-level coaching jobs in football. The humble, quiet Canales definitely knows his role though.

“I always tell people, ‘I’m the lowest man on the totem pole, but it’s a pretty sweet totem pole,’” Canales said.

Canales’ position includes the prototypical “dirty work,” as described by offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates, who himself started as a quality control coach. The duties consist of self-scouting, film breakdowns, playbook production and assisting the other coaches.

“Dave’s doing the work no one ever notices,” Bates said. “But he does it so well. He’s a grinder, and he’s got his foot in the door.”

Canales worked with Bates last season at USC, the first and only for both coaches with the Trojans. Before that, he was an assistant offensive coach for three seasons at El Camino Junior College just outside of L.A., which allowed him to work USC’s summer camps and get acquainted with Coach Pete Carroll and the Trojan coaching staff.

Who would’ve ever guessed those bonds forged each summer would not only lead to a job at USC, but a job in the NFL just a year later? Not Canales, that’s for sure, especially when you consider where he came from.

Following four years as a starting wideout at Azusa Pacific University, a small NAIA school on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Canales put his business degree to work by doing commercial real estate in southern California, along with managing a cowboy boot company. After six months of around-the-clock work, Canales realized he didn’t exactly like the job.

“The commercial real estate thing was great but it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Canales said.

So he began teaching geometry and coaching junior varsity football at his alma mater, Carson High in Los Angeles. He did that for two years before moving on to El Camino JC, where he held down a teaching job and a music position at a church while also coaching. More or less, he was living the dream, or at least that was his hope for down the road.

“That was a brutal time,” Canales said.

His brief moments every summer of working the camps at USC gave him hope for a brighter future, and he eventually landed a job with the Trojans. Then, just a little more than 12 months later, he was moving his family to Seattle to take a position with the Seahawks. Life was good.

It was also hard.

The transition from college to NFL was about as challenging as it comes for Canales. After arriving in Seattle at the end of January, he would sleep at the office many nights, or slink back to the hotel and crash.

“I saw the hotel, I saw the pillow and then I heard the alarm the next morning,” Canales recounted of his first month on the job. “That was my ‘welcome to the NFL’ moment right there. It was certainly not easy.”

Canales also faced an uphill climb to learning the system and schemes of an NFL team. After all, he was just a season removed from coaching junior college football.

“You sit in a room with these guys and you realize how far away you still are,” he said. “Having that knowledge gap staring me in the face reminds me on a daily basis that this is crazy how far I’ve come in such a short time. It forces me to keep studying, keep working.”

The hectic transition was compounded by a flurry of activity — all very monumental things — in Canales’ personal life. The move to the Pacific Northwest was welcomed by his wife, Lizzy, who grew up in the Seattle area. The couple bought their first house upon moving up. And his wife gave birth to their first child, a baby girl named Ashby, in February.

“All these miracles just poured in,” Canales said.

The baby was due a few weeks after Canales started with the Seahawks, so he’d fly back to L.A. every weekend to see his wife. Then, with just days until the baby would be born, Carroll gave Canales a reprieve from his 20-hour work days and sent him back to California.

“Coach was like, ‘Don’t mess around with that stuff; get home,’” Canales said.

He flew back on a Feb. 10 and the baby was born Feb. 13. Canales said the three weeks of working, traveling and tending to his wife and baby turned him into “a ghost,” as he lost 15 pounds and became extremely pale.

“It was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life, but I was so fired up,” Canales said. “I was pushing through it on adrenaline.”

Rightfully so. It was yet another blessing in a time full of them for Canales, who said he’s so thankful for the opportunity to work with Carroll and Bates for another season and at a new level. His ultimate goal is to be a head coach, and he’s got an amazing launching pad to go off of from the last year-plus. And considering the magical journey Canales has been on recently, who knows where his current job will take him.

“You’ve got to get your foot in the door, and you’ve also got to know what door you’re putting your foot into,” Canales said. “With this door here, the sky’s the limit if you do things right.”