If April’s REDBLACKS Mini-Camp was a pre-dinner cocktail, it’s time to get ready for the appetizer with the club’s 2017 Training Camp kicking off Wednesday.
Up first will be the rookies, who will get to experience their first day of school without all the big kids around, other than the REDBLACKS stable of quarterbacks – Trevor Harris, Drew Tate, Ryan Lindley and Brock Jensen – who will take part in both rookie and main camp.
Rookie Camp kicks off Wednesday afternoon following medicals, with first-year players including offensive lineman Evan Johnson and the rest of Ottawa’s 2017 draft class hitting the field from 3:30-5:20 p.m. Two more days of morning rookie sessions, from 8:30-10:20 a.m. will follow on Thursday and Friday before the vets arrive on the weekend.
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The benefit of the three-day rookie camp, said REDBLACKS General Manager Marcel Desjardins, is that it allows the younger players to learn how practices run and what’s expected of them before the first practice of main camp on Sunday.
“It allows them to be on more equal footing with the vets as it relates to the playbook and the schedule for each day, and how things go day-to-day versus coming in blind on Sunday,” said Desjardins.
Though Thursday will be a first opportunity for the staff and fans to see the club’s new draft picks on the field at TD Place, many of the other players were here for mini-camp.
“Our draft picks will be here which is the big thing for us, to see where they’re at. We also want to see how the other players have progressed from mini-camp through to rookie camp.” – GM Marcel Desjardins
As always, both rookie camp and main camp are open to the public and Desjardins suggests RNation’s armchair scouts pay close attention.
“You’ll see a lot of individual, technical, position-specific type stuff but also implementing the offence and watching the offence and defence evolve as training camp progresses,” he said. “You can see, if you’re paying attention, who is in the wrong spot at the wrong time, those are the kinds of the things we look for.”
As of Wednesday, there are just over two weeks remaining until Ottawa opens its pre-season schedule – the amuse-bouche to the regular season’s main course, if you will – at TD Place against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on June 8. And though Desjardins and his team rarely take time off, things have noticeably started to heat up around the stadium over the past week.
“It’s exciting,” said Desjardins. “There’s a lot more activity than there was even a couple weeks ago. Players are starting to roll in, so yeah, the next couple weeks are the first big steps in getting where we want to get at the end of November.
Football is back. Bon appetit!
Rookie camp schedule
Wednesday, May 24 at TD Place: 3:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
Thursday, May 25 at TD Place: 8:30 a.m. to 10:20 p.m.
Friday, May 26 at TD Place: 8:30 a.m. to 10:20 p.m.
*All camp practices are open to the public. Fans are asked to sit in the field-level seats on the north side.
