Image credit: cfjctoday

By Earl Seitz

B.C. Lions camp

New CFL collective agreement, Lions camp opens at Hillside

May 15, 2019 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — There is labour peace in the CFL.

A new collective agreement between the league and the players association, meaning training camps will open on time this weekend.

Some of the B.C. Lions are already in town for a three day mini camp for first year players, today through Friday at Hillside Stadium.

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“We’re just excited about the opportunity to play football.” says Lions general manager Ed Hervey.

“The union and the league–those guys do a great job of negotiating.

Our job is to make sure that we work with who is here, and we’re just excited that we’ll be playing football this year.”

This is the second training camp in Kamloops for Ed Hervey as the Lions general manager.

It’s also the start of a new era with DeVon Claybrooks taking over as head coach from the retired Wally Buono.

Coming off a Grey Cup win as an assistant coach in Calgary, this was Claybrooks first day with the Lions rookie camp.

“They’re still trying to get their burns.” says Claybrooks, referring to the players in rookie camp.

“Getting used to the coaches yelling and everything. It’s like a hundred miles an hour, and it’s 85 mini fires out there. So they’re still trying to learn how to breath right now. So as the week goes on I’m sure some players will pop out on film and we can identify who can help us, and who won’t.”

The big grunting and groaning doesn’t begin until Sunday when the veterans take to the field for the first time, with the holdovers from rookie camp.

One of those excited to get going is a new starting quarterback.

This will be Mike Reilly’s second stint with the Lions.

He was mostly a third string quarterback from 2010 to 2012.

It was after a trade to Edmonton that Reilly’s career really took off.

He was the Grey Cup MVP in 2015 and CFL most outstanding player in 2017.

Following the 2018 season Reilly returned to the Lions as a free agent —- and you get the feeling this is where his heart always was.

“By the nature of how Kamloops works, it happens, because you’re remote, you’re away from the city, and you’re on campus.” says Reilly.

“You just can’t get away from each other, and that’s really good on a lot of levels. At some point you get sick of each other, and you just want to get away from each other and that’s when the little fights start breaking out. But that’s all part of it, and that’s why to have camp off sight and where guys can just really focus 100% on football and the downtime you have in between meetings, and practices and things like that. That’s when you build that type of chemistry with your teammates.”