February 25, 2010
While much of the nation focuses its attention on the Olympics, BC Lions GM and head coach Wally Buono along with player personnel coordinator Neil McEvoy, defensive assistant Barron Miles and receivers coach Travis Moore will be in Miami this weekend for the club’s first free agent camp of 2010.
The trip to Florida will be a quick one as the group touches down Friday night and will depart for Vancouver on Sunday morning. “It’s definitely a quick trip and typically we like to make two stops on a weekend, but the timing of this one is key for us.” says McEvoy.
While camps in Los Angeles (March 27th), Washington, DC (April 17th), Atlanta (April 18th), Las Vegas (May 8th) and Portland (May 1st) are also on the agenda and will keep the Lions staff busy in weeks and months ahead, some CFL clubs have opted for one main free agent camp as opposed to multiple U.S. stops and there a couple of reasons for this says McEvoy.
“Sometimes it’s simply based on the experience of the personnel coordinator and where he’s enjoyed the most success recruiting free agents and where the majority of his contacts are based,” says McEvoy. “You can see it in their rosters; some clubs have more West Coast players while some teams have more players from the southeastern part of the states. We tend to have guys from all over because that’s where we go.”
The other challenge presented to clubs in 2010 is that of field availability. “We’re having some challenges with a few of the schools we’ve used in the past,” says McEvoy. “Whether it’s insurance concerns or rising costs or simply having to staff a facility while we’re there, staging these camps is not just a matter of showing up and running some guys through a few drills.”
Last season, it appeared that the club was zeroing in on a couple of positions for training camp, but for Buono the beginning of the free agent hunt means reexamining the depth at each position.
“We definitely have some spots to fill at running back and at linebacker, but if we see a player who can make us better overall then he’s going to be here in June regardless of his position,” says Buono. “The difference this year is that free agent acquisitions Keron Williams, Davis Sanchez and Derick Armstrong fill available spots with proven talent and experience rather than us having to bring in a player who hasn’t played our brand of football,” noted Buono.
Last season, Portland proved to another fruitful visit for the Lions on the free agent trail with quarterback Travis Lulay and receiver Terence Scott making the team out of the five players invited to training camp from that stop.
“There is something about that Portland camp that has been a real goldmine for the club,” notes McEvoy of the annual Oregon trip which has also produced Buck Pierce, Ryan Phillips, Caesar Rayford and Jeremy Gibbs in recent years. “There are four PAC-10 schools in Washington and Oregon that always have strong representation in Portland but we also get players travelling from as far as Phoenix and Dallas.”
This year the five-hour trek south comes a day before the annual CFL Canadian Draft slated for Sunday, May 2nd. “This will likely be our single most important weekend of adding players to our training camp roster,” says McEvoy.
McEvoy, Buono, Miles and defensive coordinator Mike Benevides will travel to Toronto on the second week of March for the CFL’s annual Evaluation Camp prior to draft day, but not before both McEvoy and Benevides stop off at the University of Montreal and the Laval University earlier in the week to take in both school’s pro-day workouts.
In all, McEvoy and Buono and various members of the Lions coaching staff will spend close to a month on the road between now and June to fill out the club’s training camp roster.
“We basically see airports and fields, but the odd time we have a few minutes to see something interesting albeit from inside the car on the way to a hotel.” Last year, secondary coach Mark Washington (a Maryland native) took McEvoy and Buono on a quick trip through the area around the White House on their way to the airport. “I think we spent about 10 minutes driving around the Capitol Building and the White House with Mark pointing out 20 things in about 30 seconds on our way to catching a flight to Atlanta,” recalls McEvoy.
With the 2010 season quickly approaching the only thing they're interested in seeing is outstanding football talent and building a championship calibre club. The attitude is best summed up my Buono himself:
“Regardless of the obstacles we had to overcome last season to play in another division final, not one person in our organization is satisfied about how things ended and we have a responsibility to our fans to make sure we take some significant steps forward this season. Our core is strong, our returning players are motivated and now it’s time to find the guys who can help us get back to the Grey Cup.”
