6/3/2007 10:28:55 PM
Camp Log; Day 1

Well, I must say it felt good to get started up again. At the same time, the apprehension and strain are unbelievable. The rich sense of CFL lore and history is so evident within this city in just the few days that I’ve been riding around in it is truly unbelievable. It’s a great honor to be among those who have called themselves Eskimos. The changes that came from last year’s season results here are well documented. Being one of them produces mixed feelings really, from my end as a player that was chosen to come in and try to help right the ship it’s privilege to me. By the same token the Eskimos that I’ve come to know over the years of playing against them are no more, simply because so many of them that were the faces of the franchise have gone to make way for others like myself, Jason Goss, Stanford Samuels, T.J. Acree etc. to carry on the great tradition that they have cultivated.
I always marvel at what actually goes into creating a training camp situation. From top to bottom, from the 70 or so players past, present and future who go through a rigorous offseason in attempt to crack the 53 man roster in June. To the coaches who toil and strain to come up with the perfect mixture of game planning, personnel decisions, and team management dynamics that would top their previous year’s work in the same realms. It begins with the check-in and physical, and this is really where teammates of old can admire each other’s offseason conditioning program as well as reflect on what they have missed in the past 6 long months. For the teams, this is a chance to see firsthand what kind of shape your guys are in before you actually get them out on the field as well as make sure that they have no outstanding injuries that they may have sustained during their time off.
From a player standpoint the physical is somewhat of a formality that we all go through, and accept as a part of the business. Depending on the team these physicals can be somewhat rigorous and demanding physically, sometimes involving conditioning/strength tests that are really the last thing a player would be looking to do at this point in the year. Reluctant not because they aren’t prepared, or aren’t competitive, but once you grasp the concept as a player that this is your primary means of income to support your family and any injury you sustain before you can actually prove yourself on the field would seriously damage your chances of making that 53 man roster that I referenced earlier…you just want to play at this point.
Fortunately for us Eskimos, our coaching staff must subscribe to a similar philosophy because we didn’t do any strenuous testing this year aside from a fitness test during the physical that measured our fitness level through recovery , respiratory output, and heart rate which wasn’t so bad, and most importantly to my knowledge, nobody was injured doing it. I’ve been on other teams where we weren’t so fortunate in the amount of strenuous testing that we were subjected to, nor as fortunate as to the amount of walking wounded, that entered the 1st day of camp hindered or sidelined subsequently. ©

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