The road to glory will begin in British Columbia for former Carroll College and Capital High star Tyler Emmert.

The record-breaking quarterback inked a contract to try out with the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League on Monday and will report to Portland for a workout on Saturday.

“I kind of anticipated that I’d be signing with B.C.,” Emmert said. “I’m not 100 percent sure just what all I’ll need to do, but I know there are three guys on the team returning at quarterback, so I’ll have to beat out one of them. It’ll definitely be an uphill battle.”

One of the signal-callers is none other than incumbent starter Dave Dickenson, who starred for C.M. Russell and the University of Montana. Dickenson just completed his 10th season in the professional ranks.

“I’ve never talked to him, but I know all about him and have followed his career,” Emmert said of Dickenson. “I’d love to play underneath him. He’s a great quarterback and someone I could learn a lot from.”

Dickenson was easily the top rated quarterback in the CFL last season with a 118.8 rating that went down as best in the history of the league. He threw for 21 touchdowns and just five interceptions, completing a CFL-best 74 percent of his passes despite missing four games due to a concussion.

The Lions’ other quarterbacks are former Notre Dame standout Jarious Jackson and Buck Pierce, who played his college ball at New Mexico State.

It’ll be a quick turnaround for Emmert as training camp begins on May 15 for the Lions and they will select their starting unit sometime around June 1.

“I think they want me to get bigger, faster and throw harder,” he added.

Despite the difficult task ahead of him and his small-school background, Emmert’s game has high expectations up north and he’s no stranger to football aficionados in Canada.

“To say Tyler comes to us with an impressive football resume would be an understatement,” said Lions general manager and head coach Wally Buono. “He’s a winner and you just can’t have too many of those. I expect him to come in and compete very well with our three quarterbacks and I look forward to seeing him in action.”

Chris Gittings and Dan Hoven of Hometown Sports Management of Helena represent Emmert.

“Tyler’s such a good guy and it’s a great opportunity for us to represent someone that has done so much for Helena,” Gittings said. “He stepping into a good situation at B.C., not only with Dave (Dickenson) being there, but also (B.C. director of player personnel) Bob O’Billovich, who has watched Tyler play live. The style of offense that Wally Buono is also conducive to Tyler’s style of play.”

Emmert led Carroll to four straight NAIA national championships during his college career. He’s the all-time leader in college football at all levels in completion percentage and is believed to be the winningest college quarterback of all time with 51 wins against just three losses.

He is also the NAIA career leader in total offense with 13,979 yards. He passed for 12,770 yards and 110 touchdowns and ran for 1,209 yards and 23 more scores.

Emmert was the Rawlings-NAIA National Football Player of the Year in 2003 and 2005 and received the A.O. Duer Award as the NAIA’s top student athlete in 2004. He also earned Associated Press first-team Little All-America honors as a senior and is a nominee for the second straight year for the Montana Little Sullivan Award.

The Lions, based in Vancouver, B.C., begin their two-game pre-season on June 2 with a game against the Calgary Stampeders. They take on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders in their regular season opener on June 16.

They were a CFL best 12-6 during the 2005 season to win the Western Division.