Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
Early June always signifies a number of things; the weather takes a turn for the better, students’ minds begin to wander to thoughts of summer vacation and the Ticats return to their pre-season home at McMaster University.
While the vets won’t arrive until Saturday afternoon, Thursday was the first of two days of practice for Tiger-Cats rookies, who will be trying to impress coaches enough to earn a spot on the opening day roster.
“The good thing about today is to get out here and get a look at these guys with their pads on,” said Defensive Coordinator Greg Marshall.
While it can seem like things are coming at these rookies extremely fast, the biggest thing that they can show coaches is improvement.
“The biggest thing you want to see from them is, did they learn?” said Marshall.
“There’s going to be mistakes the first time out and you want to see them make the corrections from the mistakes today,” he said.
Over 40 rookies in all are at Hamilton’s rookie camp, including three of the Ticats four selections from this year’s CFL draft.
“It’s a great feeling to finally be out here,” said Ticats second-round pick, defensive lineman, Eddie Steele.
“It’s been a long time coming and its good to finally get out here and butt heads,” said Steele.
While everyone certainly enjoyed a return to the football field, getting used to the level of competition is something all the rookies face.
“The guys are a lot bigger and a lot faster,” said Steele. “Everybody is good out here and its great competition, it’s not college any more that’s for sure,” he added.
Joining the new players in camp are quarterbacks Kevin Glenn, Quinton Porter, Adam Tafralis and Jason Boltus.
“It’s good to see all the guys you’ve been reading about and for me, it’s just good to get out here and throw again on the big field,” said Tafralis.
Luckily for some of the young receivers in camp, the veteran quarterbacks in attendance didn’t mind offering some advice if need be.
“Anytime I had an opportunity to give them a little insight I did,” said Tafralis.
“I didn’t want to throw too much at them, just encourage them because they are doing a great job so far.”
Even though nothing will be decided by the outcome of one day of rookie camp, one thing is clear… football is back in Hamilton.
