By Joey Abrams,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Montreal – You would think it began with an early Friday morning Metro ride to the train station on the green line, with a quick transfer to the orange lineↆ but the work that needed to be done for the annual CFL Evaluation Camp began much earlier. It began two years prior in fact, looking at junior players both in CIS and at the annual East-West Bowl.
How to pick a player
While some scouts like to go into the camp with a fresh mind on all the players, myself and other scouts with the Alouettes prefer to go in with what we call “a feel” for a guy.
That means we know what to expect and can see if a player matches what he shows on film, or either impresses by going beyond what we have seen or falters by having a bad camp.
Regardless of what system a club and its scouts like to use going into the E-camp, one thing holds true ↓ going is an invaluable part of the scouting process in terms of the CFL Canadian Draft.
We’re not going to give away our draft evaluations here, but what I can do is give you some insight into what E-camp is like for coaches, scouts and GMs alike.
Friday
We arrived in Toronto by train just after noon last Friday, and after arriving in the hotel and making ourselves comfortable it was off to two meetings followed by a dinner with the participating players.
After dinner we had just enough time to get prepared for a CFL first ↓ closed interview sessions with the players. Choosing to take advantage of the time the league gave us, we sat with 10 players from 8 to about 10:30 p.m., trying to find out what they were about and what they could offer the Alouettes both on and off the field.
After the meetings some of us choose to run to the local pub for some goodnight eatsↆ Time for some hot chicken wings ↓ a staple of the football world!
Saturday
Saturday began bright and early, starting with the players doing their bench press, flexibility tests and hand and arm measurements. It’s a tough gig for the players who have to bench 225 lbs as many times as the can, surrounded by a crush of CFL scouts – hats off to the guys for being able to deliver under pressure.
This testing lasts the whole morning, as there were some 50 young men waiting in the wings for their turn.
After a quick lunch they are right back at it with another no doubt embarrassing, but very useful height and weight test where the players are asked to go up on a stage again in front of CFL member clubs in their short shorts.
This is the chance for scouts to get a read on a player’s body type and see if he needs to add some weight, lose some, or change his body in any other way to play with the big boys.
The players then do their vertical jump and broad jump, and by the time that is done it’s time to eat ↓ another chance for scouts to chat with the players informally.
After dinner it’s time for round two of the interview process, again sitting with 10 players and getting a feel of who they are. After the interviews at about 10:30 at night, it was once again for another late meal. This time I decided to go with the lighter, but delicious Caesar salad.
Sunday
Sunday morning is the chance to really get a feel of what the guys can do.
A quick coffee run and it was over to Varsity Stadium where the field is covered by a monstrous bubble and players were ready to runs their 40-yard dash and short shuttle.
Uzooma Okeke timed the 10-yard split; I did the 20-yard split; and Jim Popp and Marcel Desjardins worked the 40 times. Meanwhile across the field, Dru Grigson got the times on the players’ short shuttles.
The 10- and 20- yard-splits are a good way to decipher a player’s acceleration and burst, while the 40 gives an idea of how fast a player is and the short shuttle measures a player’s “COD,” or change of direction.
After each group goes twice through drills, scouts are treated to some position drills and one-on-one’s to gauge what kind of football players these guys are. After all was said and done, we looked at the time and we had 45 minutes to get to Union Station!
After a hustled cab ride, a delayed train trip and a late-night Metro ride to complete the voyage, everyone was back at home Sunday night ready to meet Monday morning and start engineering the plan of what will be happening on April 30.
We hope you’ll be watching!
