Mike Ridaught
Hard work pays off.
For Oak Hall’s Dylan Provencher, that meant diligently persevering on and off the field from sunrise to sunset.
Provencher (6’3, 230) is a three-sport standout in football, basketball and track for the Eagles.
He also excels in the classroom, where he carries a 4.6 GPA and he scored 1530 on the SAT while maintaining a heavy AP course load.
“The way he works in the classroom is the way he works on the field, in the weight room, and with everything he does,” said Oak Hall football coach R.J. Fuhr. “I’ve coached for a long time, different sports, and I’ve never seen a player more dedicated than Dylan.”
After football season, Provencher would go to Tim Shankle’s individual workouts before school to run, speed train, work on his agility, then go to school, weight train, and then go to basketball practice.
On Thursday, all of that hard work paid off as Provencher signed to play college football at Division-III Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, one of the top engineering schools in the country.
Carnegie Mellon, which was undefeated during the regular season last year, is ranked in the top five of the most prestigious engineering schools along with MIT, Stanford, Purdue, and Cal.
“I want to try and be a leader as far as energy goes,” Provencher said. “Some people suck energy and some people give energy. When you see videos of college football and everyone is getting hyped for a big lift, I want to be a guy that can help facilitate that.”
A lot went into finding the right school.
“It was a long process,” Provencher said. “There were a lot of changes. Every time I kind of felt like something was set in stone, something changed. There was a lot with Covid that changed as far as camps and stuff, and there was also just a lot on the academic side of things too with a lot of schools going test optional, that changed things for me, so I would say that a lot went into it, a lot of training, and this was the final result so I’m very happy with it.”
He will play tight end at the next level, which is a position that he has played the past three years with the Eagles.
“Florida was close as far as a preferred walk-on, but ultimately it came down to he wants to be an engineer,” Fuhr said. “It’s a very good situation. They’re putting a ton of money into the program. Academically it’s a great fit, so I couldn’t be more happy for him.”
Provencher, who may also pursue Navy ROTC, has been a part of the Oak Hall varsity football program since his eighth-grade year.
He was an offensive lineman and started as a freshman, before being moved to wide receiver/tight end because of his athletic ability.
As a three-year captain and four-year starter, he finished with over 40 receptions for over 700 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also played defensive line and linebacker.
This past year he was a finalist for the Scot Brantley award which is given to the top football player among seven different counties locally, finishing in the final four.
“Character is the most important thing we have and humbleness and humility and loyalty, unfortunately in this day and age, are kind of things that are fleeting,” Fuhr said. “But Dylan has all of that. Right after his freshman year, we had quite a few guys transfer and he could have easily transferred. There were public schools that wanted him but he stayed at Oak Hall and I’ll always be grateful for that.”
One of his highlights in an Eagles’ uniform was in 2021 when he caught a game-winning 2-yard touchdown pass with fractions of a second left on the clock to stun Seven Rivers Christian (Lecanto).
“I basically had a choice route and I caught it in double coverage,” he said. “Everyone came over and cheered and jumped on me kind of so that was really awesome. I loved that.”
While tight end is the position he plans to play, he’s also a very good long snapper according to Fuhr.
But no matter where he plays, expect him to do well.
Fuhr believes Provencher will also transcend at the next level.
“Once he gets into a college weight program, he’s going to get bigger and stronger,” he said. “And work ethic is not a problem. I can guarantee you he won’t get outworked.”