Master and Commander

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2009 (5942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was classic Mike Kelly.

When everything around him appeared to be going wrong, the rookie coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers came up with a plan and defeated disaster. No doubt, the son of a marine is a strategist and he’ll need to be when the winds of the 2009 CFL regular season start to howl Thursday.

Distractions

Saturday was the first official day of practice following training camp for the Bombers and Kelly was besieged with distractions, such as being booted from his place of work for a rock concert, and enduring weather more reminiscent of November than late June.

But Kelly was unfazed and, following practice, he emerged fresh from a hot shower to spout themes of confidence and positive thinking.

"The weather has nothing to do with it. We embrace it," said Kelly, when asked whether Saturday’s rain, wind and cool temperatures were the reason for a short workout.

"We’re the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and we represent the good people of Manitoba and I don’t see any of them shying away from it. We have to play in it, we have to practice in it.

"We do have an extra day to get ready for Edmonton and since the players spent the last two days looking for housing, I wanted to get into no-huddle and have them run up and down the field five or six times and do some things on special teams."

Kelly trimmed his roster to 46 players last Thursday and then gave his players Friday off to begin settling into Winnipeg. The team will travel to Edmonton early this week and will meet the Eskimos on Thursday night to begin their season.

Quarterback Stefan LeFors said the coaching staff planned a perfect practice for Saturday’s challenges. The team dressed in their locker-room and then travelled by bus to the St. James Rods’ facility for a workout that featured lots of fast-paced action and very little standing around and talking.

"The coaches did a great job of keeping us focused. There’s an opportunity on a day like this to have your mind wander, but we did a lot of no-huddle and no-huddle brings out the competition," said LeFors.

"Everyone has to be on the move. We were competing and that gets you to forget about the elements and focuses you on beating the guy across from you. The setup for this was perfect."

For his part, Kelly said Saturday was all business and excuses don’t cut it.

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"This was our first day of business. I spoke to the team after our roller coaster day of cuts on Thursday and now this is getting down to work. Our focus is the Edmonton Eskimos," said Kelly.

"We embrace distractions. Why make a big deal of it? It is what it is. There’s a whole bunch of people out here enjoying music in the stadium.

"We just move along. We have work to do and we’re not going to let anything get in our way."

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

bomber report C4