2019 training camp

[Kamloops Lion]

Some stories from camp:

Burham says it was time for a change:
https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/sports ... 1.23829319

Make or break camp for Lyn:
https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/sports ... 1.23831313

Will camp remain in Kamloops beyond 2020?
https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/sports ... 1.23831426

Lee and Grymes and the Leos’ new-look D:
https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/sports ... 1.23831865

[Hambone]

I think it will be tough for them to find a better TC facility than TRU. The main reason is everything they need is all right there on the campus. Kamloops' weather is also a huge plus. When they used to train down on the coast they seemed to lose the odd session to rain.

Prince George can come close with UNBC's campus including a state of the art fieldhouse/indoor facility. However the field that would be best suited for practice sessions is about 2km down the hill. To compare it to TRU it would be like everything except the field is up at TRU while the field is in downtown Kamloops.

[CardiacKid]

I think it will be tough for them to find a better TC facility than TRU. The main reason is everything they need is all right there on the campus. Kamloops' weather is also a huge plus. When they used to train down on the coast they seemed to lose the odd session to rain.

Prince George can come close with UNBC's campus including a state of the art fieldhouse/indoor facility. However the field that would be best suited for practice sessions is about 2km down the hill. To compare it to TRU it would be like everything except the field is up at TRU while the field is in downtown Kamloops.

I hope Esther’s Inn isn’t the PG indoor facility you are thinking of, Hambone
Yes, the weather in Kamloops is a big bonus for the club. Plus I seem to recall my 12-year old nephew in PG was shovelling snow a few weeks ago.

[B.C.FAN]

Hillside Stadium and the Tournament Capital Centre make a great combination within a short walk of TRU residence. I hope camp stays there indefinitely. I'm looking at real estate in Kamloops. For 18 days or so, I can attend training camp. For 10 home games, I can drive to Vancouver. I might even make more road trips to Calgary and Edmonton.

[CardiacKid]

Hillside Stadium and the Tournament Capital Centre make a great combination within a short walk of TRU residence. I hope camp stays there indefinitely. I'm looking at real estate in Kamloops. For 18 days or so, I can attend training camp. For 10 home games, I can drive to Vancouver. I might even make more road trips to Calgary and Edmonton.

It would be really interesting to see what percentage of the STHs live outside Greater Vancouver. We have consistently encountered folks at the games, Operation Orange, and other events who travel from the Island (like us), the Interior and elsewhere who make the trek several times a season.

[DanoT]

Hillside Stadium and the Tournament Capital Centre make a great combination within a short walk of TRU residence. I hope camp stays there indefinitely. I'm looking at real estate in Kamloops. For 18 days or so, I can attend training camp. For 10 home games, I can drive to Vancouver. I might even make more road trips to Calgary and Edmonton.

It would be really interesting to see what percentage of the STHs live outside Greater Vancouver. We have consistently encountered folks at the games, Operation Orange, and other events who travel from the Island (like us), the Interior and elsewhere who make the trek several times a season.

It is easier and less costly to get to games from Kelowna or Kamloops than it is from the Island.

[Hambone]

Hillside Stadium and the Tournament Capital Centre make a great combination within a short walk of TRU residence. I hope camp stays there indefinitely. I'm looking at real estate in Kamloops. For 18 days or so, I can attend training camp. For 10 home games, I can drive to Vancouver. I might even make more road trips to Calgary and Edmonton.

It would be really interesting to see what percentage of the STHs live outside Greater Vancouver. We have consistently encountered folks at the games, Operation Orange, and other events who travel from the Island (like us), the Interior and elsewhere who make the trek several times a season.

It is easier and less costly to get to games from Kelowna or Kamloops than it is from the Island.

At the price of gas today that's getting closer to a wash depending on how far one lives from a ferry terminal and what sort of vehicle they drive. I figure it would run me close to $150 in fuel alone if I was to make a return trip from Kelowna and that would be with filling the tank up at Kelowna prices as opposed to lower mainland prices. Mind you that's in an F150 truck. That's about the same as return trip ferry costs for car and driver. With a 132 litre tank the return trip can be done on one tank. Coming down from PG though is close to a 1700km return trip (nearly 2 tanks). Tack on 17+ hours of total windshield time and that's why I fly down for most games unless I'm making a trip back home to the Island. The expensive part of any road trip to a Lions game is the cost of accommodations if one has to overnight. I usually stay at something like the HoJo on Granville. Even that 2.5 star property is pushing $300/night in the summer.

[Toppy Vann]

I didn't mind the camp held at Abbotsford but the players had to bus or drive from dorms.

Having said that TRU and Kamloops being the host for TC makes it more of a BC team and as others note the facilities are great and the comments from players over the years seem pretty positive.

The local paper there is sure pumping out some good, deep dive stories and I wouldn't doubt local radio would be mentioning them.

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions have reduced their kicking roster by half. Internationals Taylor Russolino and Lane Clark have been released. That leaves national Anthony Alix and newly acquired international Angelo Castillo on the training camp roster.

The Lions also confirmed the signing of a fifth quarterback, Grant Kraemer, who has a steep learning curve to try to pick up Jarious Jackson’s offence.

[JohnnyMusso]

With the new QB signing clearly Lions are not happy with their current backup quarterbacks. It is unlikely Kraemer will play in the last exhibition for not much time to learn the offence. The signing likely means that their No 3 and 4 guys could be cut soon if Kraemer shows the Lions he has the tools to be groomed into their No 3.

[Figaro]

I haven't commented in a long long time - but I must say first a huge thank you to those Lionbackers who are reporting the daily goings on at training camp. Your posts are always filled with interesting details and observations. Again, thanks.

The discussion around driving to Lions games brought back some great memories. Back in the early '80's I used to live in Salmon Arm and my best friend in Salmon Arm had two season tickets his father bought back at the inception of the team. We would jump into his TR6 and roar down Friday night dodging speed traps as well as cattle wandering ever so often across the highway. The games were exciting - think Swervin' Mervin - and the drive back was always slower and quieter. Fantastic road trips.

These excursions came to an abrupt end when I moved to Los Angeles for work. Dave, my Lions buddy would often fly down over Christmas holidays and we would head off to the Rose Bowl Game - not a bad substitute for a Lions' game.

When I moved back to Vancouver in the early '90's, Dave still had his tickets and was living in Victoria. He would park at Swartz Bay and catch the bus on board and we would meet up at a bar in downtown Vancouver and watch the end of the earlier game on TV and then walk over to the Stadium. Dave would head back to Victoria on Sunday.

Alas, Dave passed away quite a while ago and he left me his tickets. I continued to go to Lions' games taking a different friend each game - what a blast. I am now living on the Sunshine Coast and have given my tickets to my grandsons, but I still get over for at least three or four games a year - especially now that they have an 11:30 sailing on for the summer - makes it easy to get back home after the game - the overnight cost can be prohibitive.

I anticipate our offence will be - or should be - markedly better this season with the strong upgrades at quarterback and the O-line. Our running backs seem smaller so I question whether they can block as well as a bigger back. I think it is the defence that may have some questions that need answering - how is the D-line going to be. Is Matt Boesen looking like the rush end I hope he will be? Linebacker is a big question mark for me no Solly; no Lokombo- is there anyone in camp who is starting to take charge at linebacker? Special teams could be a weakness this year: no Rainey, no Ty Long. The defensive backfield looks strong.

Glad to be back - Roar you Lions Roar!

[WestCoastJoe]

Great post, Figaro. Those road trips sound awesome.

Dunno about the TR6 though. Maybe an MGB would have been better. Ha ha That was a beauty. Woe the repair bills.

Can't post the pic. Here is a website pic of the British Racing Green MGB. Mine was 1965. Had it flat out to 105 mph in Washington State before I got ticketed. When we were young and crazy.

https://courtyardclassiccars.com/produc ... cing-green

[CrazyCanuck89]

I haven't commented in a long long time - but I must say first a huge thank you to those Lionbackers who are reporting the daily goings on at training camp. Your posts are always filled with interesting details and observations. Again, thanks.

The discussion around driving to Lions games brought back some great memories. Back in the early '80's I used to live in Salmon Arm and my best friend in Salmon Arm had two season tickets his father bought back at the inception of the team. We would jump into his TR6 and roar down Friday night dodging speed traps as well as cattle wandering ever so often across the highway. The games were exciting - think Swervin' Mervin - and the drive back was always slower and quieter. Fantastic road trips.

These excursions came to an abrupt end when I moved to Los Angeles for work. Dave, my Lions buddy would often fly down over Christmas holidays and we would head off to the Rose Bowl Game - not a bad substitute for a Lions' game.

When I moved back to Vancouver in the early '90's, Dave still had his tickets and was living in Victoria. He would park at Swartz Bay and catch the bus on board and we would meet up at a bar in downtown Vancouver and watch the end of the earlier game on TV and then walk over to the Stadium. Dave would head back to Victoria on Sunday.

Alas, Dave passed away quite a while ago and he left me his tickets. I continued to go to Lions' games taking a different friend each game - what a blast. I am now living on the Sunshine Coast and have given my tickets to my grandsons, but I still get over for at least three or four games a year - especially now that they have an 11:30 sailing on for the summer - makes it easy to get back home after the game - the overnight cost can be prohibitive.

I anticipate our offence will be - or should be - markedly better this season with the strong upgrades at quarterback and the O-line. Our running backs seem smaller so I question whether they can block as well as a bigger back. I think it is the defence that may have some questions that need answering - how is the D-line going to be. Is Matt Boesen looking like the rush end I hope he will be? Linebacker is a big question mark for me no Solly; no Lokombo- is there anyone in camp who is starting to take charge at linebacker? Special teams could be a weakness this year: no Rainey, no Ty Long. The defensive backfield looks strong.

Glad to be back - Roar you Lions Roar!

I think the Lions will be fine at MLB. Herdman is a hell of a run stuffer and can succeed if he drops back into a short zone. It will be interseting if he worked on his man coverage skills this offseason.

Konar will backup him up at MLB and is better in pass coverage than Herdman. Most of his experience was at WLB in Edmonton and will probably backup their as well.

I don't know much about those starting at WLB and SLB.

[CardiacKid]

Hillside Stadium and the Tournament Capital Centre make a great combination within a short walk of TRU residence. I hope camp stays there indefinitely. I'm looking at real estate in Kamloops. For 18 days or so, I can attend training camp. For 10 home games, I can drive to Vancouver. I might even make more road trips to Calgary and Edmonton.

It would be really interesting to see what percentage of the STHs live outside Greater Vancouver. We have consistently encountered folks at the games, Operation Orange, and other events who travel from the Island (like us), the Interior and elsewhere who make the trek several times a season.

It is easier and less costly to get to games from Kelowna or Kamloops than it is from the Island.

If the stars align just right, we can get to games for a shade over $20 each.

[Hambone]

Great post, Figaro. Those road trips sound awesome.

Dunno about the TR6 though. Maybe an MGB would have been better. Ha ha That was a beauty. Woe the repair bills.

Can't post the pic. Here is a website pic of the British Racing Green MGB. Mine was 1965. Had it flat out to 105 mph in Washington State before I got ticketed. When we were young and crazy.

https://courtyardclassiccars.com/produc ... cing-green

And in the era Figueroa was talking about there was no Coquihalla. I can relate a bit. When I first bought STs I only bought a package for the 2nd half of the season because games were all Saturday nights. 1st half was usually all middle of the week. It was the last 2 or 3 years of Empire and I was working in Woss Camp at the time. The highway to the north island had yet to be built. The first 80km of the trip was all logging road to Gold River; eating dust and dodging loaded logging trucks. Ours were a bit smaller because the loads had to be transferred to railcars. Once you hit Muchalat Lake and Tahsis Co's claim those trucks were big off-highway rigs with 16' wide bunks. Safely into Gold River it was highway to Campbell River.......unless you opted to take the "short cut" that was the Elk River Timber logging road which was on the opposite side of Upper Campbell Lake. It was always well maintained and wide so you could cruise along at 85kmh or so until you caught up to another big cloud of dust that signaled another fully loaded off-highway truck was anywhere from 200' to 25' in front of you. If all went good with a heavy foot it took about 2 hours to get to Campbell River and another 2 hours and a bit to get to Departure Bay. Fun times. We always pitied the poor fools who decided to head up island over those roads on a Friday night when car load after car load of loggers were making the mad dash from all those camps to get to the bars in Campbell River, Courtenay and especially Cumberland. Lol.

If you like MGs WJC you'd like the one my buddy Hoof from Total-CFL days has. He inherited it when his dad passed. It's not an MGB though. I believe it's an MGC. It's all original. Another guy I got to know a bit when doing work out of Invermere 6 years ago had an MG but he modified it and fit an engine out of a Mustang in it. Small V8 I believe. That reminded me of a couple guys who grew up in Union Bay. They were into cars and drag racing. They had a 66 Envoy Epic and dropped a Chevy 283 into it. Later on they got another one and dropped a 340 out of a Dodge Dart into it and also had it plumbed for nitrous for a little extra giddyup and go.