Bomber coaches prepared for rookie camp tomorrow

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This article was published 01/06/2010 (5617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been an offseason all about change for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And now a new chapter, a fresh start, is about to begin.

The football club officially kicks off its on-field preparation for the 2010 season Wednesday afternoon with the opening of rookie camp. The team is expecting 38 players to be on the field, including the four quarterbacks, as a new coaching staff led by Paul LaPolice begins transforming the squad into a contender.

"We’re prepared," LaPolice said Tuesday. "We had a staff meeting this morning to just go over a few of the finer points and make sure we’re on the same page. But I’m really pleased. Our staff’s done a good job making sure training camp is set up and we want to make sure we do a great job of teaching in the next couple of weeks. Obviously, we’re evaluating talent but we want to make sure we’re good teachers of the CFL game."

The rookies will have three days to impress the coaches — Wednesday through Friday — before the entire squad reports to work Sunday morning. And it won’t be long before Bomber fans get a closer look at the 2010 edition as the team plays host to the Montreal Alouettes in the first preseason game on June 13th. The Bomber regular season begins with back-to-back home dates against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 2nd and the Toronto Argonauts on July 9th.

The Bombers have a number of openings, both for starters and on their 42-man roster, and LaPolice is stressing the camp will be allow anybody to stand up and grab regular work.

"We want to let the players know there’s not a lot of entitlement here," he said. "We want these rookies to understand, ‘Don’t back down. Take everything and be aggressive on the field and make plays.’ We’ll say this time and time again: the players will determine the depth chart, we won’t. Rookies should come here with every opportunity to compete for a starting job."

Blue Bomber rookie camp schedule

(all practices are open to the public and are held at Canad Inns Stadium)

Wednesday, June 2nd – Practice: 3-4:50 p.m.

Thursday, June 3rd – Practice: 9:30-11:15 a.m.

Friday, June 4th – Practice: 9:30-11:15 a.m.

Saturday, June 5th – Medical day, no practice.

Sunday, June 6th – Main training camp opens; practice: 8:30-12:45 p.m. (open to season-ticket holders only).

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BLUE NOTES: The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced Wednesday that tickets available for the Labour-Day game against the Bombers on Sept. 5th sold out in the first 16 minutes they were available this morning.

The Bombers announced another signing on Tuesday, adding import defensive back Alex Suber (5-7, 177, Middle Tennessee State) to their training-camp roster. In his final season of college ball, Suber had 57 tackles and two interceptions.