Stamps receiver taking valuable family lessons onto the football field

Stampeders' Tre Odoms-Dukes steps up his game As the Stampeders prepare for Saturday's row, receiver Tre Odoms-Dukes is excited to find himself playing a more prominent role as of late.

Calgary Stampeders receiver Tre Odoms-Dukes was born in Pensacola, Fla., and comes from a very large family.

The 26-year-old has 11 siblings -- six sisters and five brothers.

Odoms-Dukes says when you come from that big of a family, you learn a lot of valuable lessons.

"It was tough," he said.

"I grew up in a big family and I've also got plenty of cousins, so the one thing I had to learn was to share almost everything, even if I didn't want to. Food, clothes and shoes, whatever it was. But I'm blessed to have so many siblings because I learned a lot."

Odoms-Dukes has taken a lot of those lessons onto the football field.

As a receiver, of course, he wants the football.

But he also knows to be successful, you have to spread it around.

Head coach Dave Dickenson says he loves to hear that.

"He's been a good leader," Dickenson said.

"He seems like a (veteran) but he's only been here two years. We're getting pretty good play from our receivers and we're a group that's pretty unselfish.

"We're not getting into that point where sometimes, it's throw me the ball, throw me the ball. I think he's been blocking and he's been open and doing the little things right."

USING HIS SIZE TO HIS ADVANTAGE

Odoms-Dukes has played a bigger role so far in the Stampeders offence this season.

He has 10 catches for 129 yards and one touchdown.

At 6'3 and 223 pounds, the Stamps love his size and would like to see him use it to his advantage even more.

Receivers coach Nik Lewis says Odoms-Dukes is getting better at it every week.

"He's getting more physical and he's been able to make some plays after the catch," Lewis said.

"It's always a positive at his size and we want him to be a menace on the field, be able to go out there with strong hands and be able to catch the ball but making plays after the catch and punishing defensive backs."

LEARNING FROM ONE OF THE BEST

And there's no better person to learn how to play that type of style from than Lewis, who used to run over defensive backs.

"He brings a different type of intensity and focus to our group," Odoms-Dukes told CTV News.

"He brings grit and the main thing he focuses on is physicality. ... You seen him play over the years and he's always been a physical guy, so I try to take that from him and just model my game as well and just try to use different types of things that he's teaching us to try and get better."

Odoms-Dukes and the Stampeders face the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday night at McMahon Stadium.

Kickoff is 5 p.m.