He came from Canada with a dream or two

His is the heroic tale of an immigrant, coming to the United States

to pursue his dreams. It is the story of a “little, skinny kid with a

giant afro” who came to the States to realize his goals.

Howard Dell, professional athlete, coach, actor, musician,

motivational speaker, Olympian and teacher, bravely left the comforts

of Canada to cross the borders as an “alien of extraordinary

ability.”

All right, enough with the drama. Yes, Dell was an “alien,”

according to his work visas from the Immigration and Naturalization

Services. And yes, his story is amazing. But the man is doing fine by

all accounts -- except in his love life, but we’ll get to that later.

If you are a member of the Newport Beach Tennis Club, you may know

him as “Coach Dell,” or “Hey you.” Dell, who plays the hard-hitting

secret agent Dobrinsky in the syndicated action series “Once a

Thief,” pilots his athletic training out of the Newport Beach club

and can be found on the courts, milling in the cafe or in his office,

when he’s not filming.

He claims he has the secret to strength conditioning and a great

physique, but I think his formula for fabulous abs is to make his

clients laugh. He has stories to tell about everything from

bobsledding to dating, and after an hourlong conversation with the

guy, my stomach was sore. He did warn me.

“You’ll be splitting a gut,” he said at the beginning of the

interview.

Dell had five goals in life: be in the Olympics, play professional

football, break into film and television, win a Grammy and win an

Emmy. Three down, two to go.

The 41-year-old has a bronze medal in bobsledding in the 1985

World Championships, played wide receiver in the NFL (for the 1991

Cincinnati Bengals) and Canadian Football leagues and is the star of

his own TV show. He still hasn’t captured the Emmy or the Grammy.

Underachiever.

Dell started as a skinny little farm boy from Canada with the

dream of playing professional basketball. He was 5 feet 4 inches tall

and weighed 145 pounds. He had big hair and toothpick legs.

“I was this skinny little kid with a giant afro. I looked like a

walking Q-Tip,” Dell said. “By my senior year, I went from Q-Tip to

Daddy.”

Thanks to a phenomenal growth spurt, Dell shot to 6 foot 2 inches,

225 pounds. He was dominating on the basketball courts and had his

pick of colleges when he had a horrible accident. He said he couldn’t

even talk about it because it was too painful.

“Let’s just put it this way: They told me I would never play

sports again,” Dell said.

So Dell scratched professional basketball from his list. Down to

only five goals.

“There was the NBA, but after nine knee surgeries, that really

wasn’t happening,” he said.

Five years of rehabilitation and mental endurance later, Dell was

ready to compete again. But in what? What didn’t hurt, he asked

himself. Running and jumping. He could do that. So he pushed aside

the pain from his injury and started competing in decathlons.

“I didn’t come all this way to be told no,” Dell said.

On a bet, his entire decathlon team tried out for the Russian

bobsledding team and won a bronze in the 1985 World Championship.

From there, he went to the Canadian Olympic team and placed in the

top 10 in the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Olympics? Check. Next goal, please.

So what does a guy with really bad knees do? Yeah, that’s right,

play professional football. Brilliant.

“It’s only bad for the knees if you get hit in the knees,” Dell

said. “So if I am faster than you, I am just going to run out of

bounds before you hit me.”

Great strategy. The man is still walking, so it must have worked.

After pushing a 600-pound bobsled down the slick ice of a mountain

side in a remote countries, football was a piece of cake, he said.

“It was nothing compared to bobsledding. I mean, in bobsledding,

you can die,” Dell said. “I had 3,300 runs, 13 crashes, and three

almost killed me. Go ahead, hit me, I don’t mind, just don’t put me

in a bobsled again.”

So he played wide receiver -- running a 4.2 in the 40 -- for the

Canadian league in 1989 and ‘90, for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1991,

back to Canada in ’92 and arena football in ’93.

“Here and there, ya know. Yada, yada, yada,” Dell said.

Professional football? Check. Next!

Dell could only avoid those knee-high hits for so long and then he

knew he had to find another career. Hmmm ... what does a professional

athlete do when he retires? Acting. Perfect. Dell landed his first

role opposite Halle Berry (yeah, he just has all the luck) in the

Cosby Show spin-off “A Different World.” From there, he landed other

guest and co-starring roles in film and TV, until he got his own

show, “Once a Thief.”

Successful acting career? Check.

So now, he films a little, trains a little (OK, a lot), motivates

a little and loves a little. Yeah, just a little.

“It’s tough being a single guy in Orange County,” Dell said.

(C’mon, can I get a collective “Awww” for the guy?)

He is just a farm boy from Canada, Dell contends. The ladies

around here around here aren’t really impressed by that.

“No one wants a real man ... I say what I mean and mean what I

say,” he said. “I’ll call you means I’ll call you. People around here

can’t handle that.”

Women in Orange County also can’t handle cruising around town in a

1988 Mazda 323, he said.

“I love my car, but I go to pick women up in that thing and they

look at me like, ‘What?’” Dell said. “It’s my screener.”

Dell is confident the right woman will come along at the right

time. For now, he’s busy training professional athletes and grooming

the next Venus and Serena Williams.

“Strength and conditioning is my specialty. I just have a knack

for it,” he said.

He is still working on the Emmy and the Grammy by lining up

performances -- acting and musical. Aside from that, Dell wants to

continue to make a difference with children through charity events

and in the classroom. He just got his substitute teaching license and

applied as a substitute teacher in a number of districts, including

Newport-Mesa. (They haven’t called him back, Dell said.)

“I love kids,” Dell said. “I remember being in school, some guy

came in and motivated us, and the Q-Tip said, ‘Yeah, I can do it.’

Now it’s my turn.”

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or

by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.