MONTREAL -- Dimitrios Sinodinos, a former starting quarterback at McGill University, has inked a contract to play pro football in Japan this season. The 26-year-old native of Laval, Que., will be suiting up for the X-League's IBM Big Blue, based in Tsukuba, located near the country's eastern coast, approximately 50 kilometers from central Tokyo. The X-League features a five-game regular season played between dozen teams, culminating in the Japan X Bowl held at the Tokyo Dome.
Sinodinos played last season for the Helsinki Roosters of the American Football Association of Finland, where he passed for a league-leading 3,308 yards and 42 touchdowns in 12 games.
Currently a PhD candidate, he completed a master's degree in electrical engineering at McGill, two years after earning an undergraduate degree in 2020 with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. He earned Academic All-Canadian status and made the Principal's Student-Athlete Honour Roll.
One of only 10 freshman pivots to start at McGill, the product of Vanier College played four seasons in the university ranks, from 2017 to 2021. Sinodinos served as a co-captain and was a two-time recipient of the team's Dr. Strachan Hartley Trophy (2018 & 2021), which is presented to the player who best combines academic excellence with football prowess.
In 31 career regular-season games at McGill, the 5-foot-10, 188-pound field general passed for 3,581 yards, completing 372 of 756 attempts for a 49.2 per cent success rate. He threw 18 touchdown passes and 31 interceptions. Sinodinos also rushed for three TDs and 394 yards on 82 carries, for an average of 9.5 per carry.
In 2020 he was selected to play in the East-West Bowl but the prestigious U SPORTS showcase for CFL prospects was shutdown by the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, he became the fifth McGill player selected to participate in the Canadian Quarterback Internship Program resulting in an invitation to the Montreal Alouettes training camp.
