Henoc Muamba’s two-year-old daughter, Thea, will remain a part of the Montreal Alouettes linebacker’s off-season workouts for a little while longer.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie postponed the start of training camps indefinitely Monday due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was hardly a surprise given the NHL, NBA, MLS, and Major League Baseball have all had to either suspend or delay the start of their seasons.
“The ongoing global pandemic and the resulting directives issued by various governments make it unsafe to proceed with plans to gather our athletes and coaches together as scheduled,” Ambrosie said in a statement.
Rookie camps were scheduled to open May 13 with training camps starting four days later.
The CFL had already cancelled two regional combines and national combine while postponing its April 16 global draft. The Canadian draft remains set for April 30.
The novel coronavirus outbreak has forced CFL clubs to limit their facilities to only those players rehabbing injuries, and even then only one at a time. Gyms across North America have also closed their doors, forcing many players to be innovative in their workouts.
‘You have to find a way’
So last week, Muamba and teammate James Wilder Jr. both tweeted good-natured videos of them hoisting their young children above their heads as part of their new lifting regiments.
“You have to find a way,” Muamba said with a chuckle. “As much as I know the league wants to start the season on time and fans want to watch, we can’t do that until we know it’s going to be completely safe for players, coaches and fans alike.”
As Montreal’s player rep, Muamba wasn’t surprised by the move. The CFL and CFLPA have been discussing contingency plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Obviously it’s more challenging but at the end of the day it’s part of being a professional,” Muamba said. “You have to find a way to stay prepared and ready for when the time comes that we’re all called in to training camp.”
Montreal Alouettes linebacker Henoc Muamba poses with the trophy for the most outstanding Canadian award at the CFL Awards in November 2019. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Brian Ramsay, the CFLPA’s executive director, said the league’s decision best serves all involved.
“The health, safety and well-being of all players is our priority during these extraordinarily uncertain times,” he said in a statement. “And while it wasn’t an easy decision to postpone training camps, it’s in the best interest of our players, their families, fans and all those close to the game.”
Virus will dictate timetable
But with camps starting later, conventional wisdom suggests the CFL will have to also reschedule the start of its regular season, which is slated for June 11. And if that happened, the traditional 18-game campaign would have to be reduced in order get a season in and still have it culminate with the Grey Cup game Nov. 22 in Regina.
“As for our future plans, we are in the hands of our public health officials,” Ambrosie said. “We acknowledge their timetable will be dictated by the virus itself.
“We will make further decisions when we can and share them with our fans and the public as soon as possible.”
For veteran linebacker Marcus Ball, a CFL free agent, the later start to camp means more time to prepare and spend with his wife and two young children in Atlanta. As a personal trainer in the off-season, Ball has been able to get in solid home workouts after suffering a season-ending knee injury in 2019 with Calgary.
“I think everyone kind of expected that would happen,” he said. “It’s a very unfortunate situation . . . but the CFL is a very strong, smart and aware league that’s always taken care of the players’ interests so this is no surprise for them to push back training camp.
“It will be a good thing because this (COVID-19) isn’t just in a particular region, it’s a world-wide pandemic and everyone is suffering from it. This will give more time to plan and prepare, not to say I wanted or wished for more time, it’s having to play the cards you’re dealt.”
Family time
And that could also mean more viewings for Ball of the Disney film Frozen 2 with his kids.
“Frozen 2 has been a crowd favourite right now,” Ball said. “I’m trying to get away from it but the kids love it.
“But it’s a dope movie, it’s pretty cool.”
Running back Charlie Power of the Calgary Stampeders was expecting Monday’s announcement. He said while the novel coronavirus outbreak is forcing players to change their off-season workouts, it’s also creating potential financial concerns.
“The biggest impact has just been from everything closing down . . . so you have to modify how you’re training,” he said. “On the other side of things, it’s stretching the funds from last season to make sure you can make it until a season gets going.
“Everyone realizes this is bigger than football but at the same time players in the CFL aren’t making the typical pro athletes’ salary where we can survive for a long time. It’s about figuring out how to stretch those funds while at the same time staying motivated and realize there’s going to be a time when the season gets going again and you have to remain ready.”
Receiver DeVier Posey, who signed with Hamilton this off-season as a free agent, saw the CFL’s decision coming.
“It makes total sense,” said Posey, the ’17 Grey Cup MVP. “COVID-19, for me as a football player, is a wakeup call and I hope everyone else understands what other skills they’re good and open their minds to the different platforms they can perform on.
“People in the medical world or who work other jobs like in grocery stores or garbage disposal, those people are true heroes. We (pro athletes) aren’t the true heroes of the country, we only provide the true heroes their entertainment and I am appreciating that perspective.”
Muamba added times like this allow players to think more about life after football.
“I think it’s important for every player to analyze where they’re at in their life and career,” Muamba said. “Just to kind of self reflect and see if you were to transition from the game, where exactly are you.
“The extra time gives us a chance to also dive into different things “
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
