Q: How’s your off-season going, what have you been up to?
“Right now I’m just doing my training. I co-own a sports training company, so it’s the perfect situation for me, I can train in the morning and do some work in the afternoon for the company. Then on the weekends I’ve been running a football camp. This is the fifth year of the camp.”
Q: Tell Ticats fans a bit more about the camp.
“I’m not the biggest fan of having a two or three day camp, so what I’ve done is broken it up over eight weeks, and that way it kind of simulates a season. The kids come in every week for two hours and we do football specific drills, working on their speed and conditioning. At the end of eight weeks they show a lot of improvement. We run the camp in the Durham and the York Region. Last year we had 250 kids, this year we have 270. So it’s great to see it increase. We have a junior and a senior division, and it goes from 8-13 years old for the juniors and 13-18 for the seniors.”
Q: Sounds like you’re busy. Did you have a chance to relax and rest your body after the season?
“I did. I’m so used to ending off at the end of November, so I usually take December and January off, but since we were finished a little bit early, I started up my training again in early January and got going. The whole time-off thing is for recovery. You don’t realize it but your body needs to recover.”
Q: What’s something you get to do during your months off that you just don’t have time for during the season?
“I get to travel. That’s probably a cliché everybody says, but I get to spend time with my friends, who I kind of neglect during the season. Most of them are working 9-5 and during the season I practice with the team at the end of the day, so when I get home I’m tired, I can’t really hang around. Since the season ended, I went to New York and I made it down to Vegas. Those two trips were a lot of fun.”
Q: Did you have a chance to watch any bowl games over the holidays?
“I didn’t have a chance to watch any bowl games, I’ve been doing preparation for the camp and getting all the company stuff ordered. I leave a lot to my partner in the midst of the season, so it’s time for me to catch up now.”
Q: There’s a lot of changes again this year with the team as far as coaching staff, do you think about that at all in the off-season, or is that something you wait and approach at training camp?
“Not really. I play a lot of positions, so I just have to come back and do what I do, and know all the positions. I’m not going to change my size, I’m still going to be 5-10, I’m not going to grow anytime soon, and I’m still going to be around 200 pounds, so for me it’s just to maintain my speed and keep everything flexible and be good to go.”
Q: Have you talked to Bob O’Billovich since he became Hamilton’s new GM?
“Actually, I had an opportunity to talk to him last year when he tried to get me to come to B.C. and sign with the Lions, (laughs). But I chose Hamilton instead. He knows what I can offer and hopefully he can utilize my skills this year and we can help make a playoff run.”
