The Lions started their training camp at Hillside Stadium over the weekend (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

LIONS TRAINING CAMP

Lions grateful to be back on the field in Kamloops after long layoff, uncertainty

Jul 12, 2021 | 1:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — For some of the players, especially the veterans, being out at Hillside Stadium is bringing them back to their early days of football when they had a little more jump in their step.

After being away from the game for nearly two years, many are appreciating the moment.

“A lot of these guys like myself were in a position where you weren’t sure if you were ever going to play football again,” said Lions receiver Bryan Burnham. “That’s tough. This is a sport we all love and put a lot of time and effort into. Having that thought you may never do it again, just a real bad feeling. So being back out here, you can tell that guys are really grateful.”

New head coach Rick Campbell added, “I think sometimes when things are taken away from you, you realize how important they are. I know that football’s not the most important thing in the world, but I just know with everything that’s gone on in the world in the past 18 months or so, you appreciate the things you have.”

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The CFL cancelled the 2020 season due to the pandemic, and there were some questions around if the 2021 season would get off the ground with similar COVID-related restrictions.

However, the CFL and its players association came to an agreement on a 14-game regular season starting in three weeks — in the Lions’ case, Aug. 6 on the road in Saskatchewan.

It doesn’t give B.C. and other teams much time to prepare — especially with no preseason games this year — making training camp in Kamloops that much more important.

“I think [the players], particularly our veterans, we realize we’re going to play a football game for real in less than a month,” said Campbell. “So we’ve really got to get to the business of becoming as good a football team as we can, so we can’t waste time, we can’t waste practices. There is that sense of urgency of knowing we have to do that, and I’m really thankful we have some veteran guys who are really good leaders that’ll lead the new guys.”

The coaches and players, however, will also have to cautious with intensity to avoid injury, given the long layoff. Over the weekend, four Saskatchewan Roughrider players all suffered torn achilles.

“I’m not going to lie and say we weren’t thinking about it. You think about it,” said Burnham. “When you see something like that happen, such a freak thing. I’ve never seen anything like that before. You just can’t help but think about it. We haven’t played in a long time and you’ve got to take care of your body.”

Coach Campbell said even before training camp that it would be a “ramp-up” approach, slowly getting the players used to playing at a high level after the time off.

“For instance on Saturday, we had what we call more like a ‘jog-through’ practice.’ It wasn’t a competitive practice, it was more learning and doing that, but still being active. Then yesterday was what we call a ‘single practice,’ which is a competitive practice, just a shorter amount of time. Tonight will be a full practice that we would call a ‘back-to-back.’ It’s really one practice. It’s just a little bit longer and we put shoulder pads on for the second part of it,” said Campbell.

“I’m also a big believer in rest. You have to work really hard in this business to be successful. Sometimes in football, the culture from the past was to prove how tough you were by how hard you could physically work. That’s important, but at the same, I’ve seen a lot of teams, when they work hard and then they also rest appropriately, they come back and you get a good bang for your buck.”