Kickers arrive from far and wide

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2010 (5848 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE phone rings in Seattle, in Edmonton and in Halifax and in an instant the dream is rekindled for three men.

It doesn’t matter a lick for Warren Kean, Justin Palardy and Ryan Elaschuk that the whole thing could go poof in a matter of hours or in a couple of weeks. When a CFL team beckons — in this case it’s the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — a vacation is cut short, a coaching opportunity gets shelved and plans to further pursue an education screech to a halt.

"It’s exciting. I have a shot," began Kean, one of the trio of new kickers at Bomber practice Sunday. "It’s what every kicker is waiting for… everyone that’s not on a team anyway. You get the phone call, you hear there’s an opportunity and you pack your bags.

"As long as I can swing my leg I’m going to pursue it."

A sales rep for Rogers Broadcasting, Kean was vacationing in Seattle with his girlfriend when he got the call.

Kean has been here, done this before for the Bombers — back in 2008 when the former first-round draft pick of the Edmonton Eskimos (2nd overall in 2007) competed against Alexis Serna. He was most recently in the camp of the Calgary Stampeders, but lost out to their first-round pick, Rob Maver.

Palardy was drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the spring and began the season as their punter before being released earlier this month. He was in Halifax preparing to finish his degree at St. Mary’s when the Bombers came calling.

"I’ve just been at home training, kicking, getting ready to go back to school," said Palardy. "I was getting all geared up to go back to school and finish up my degree and I get a call so here I am.

"I’m just going to take this as it goes. They’re great guys and the better man will win."

Elaschuk, meanwhile, had turned to coaching with the Edmonton Wildcats — the junior team he played with for five years to become the CJFL’s all-time leading scorer — as a kicking tutor. He had been in training camp with the Eskimos in 2009 before joining Saskatchewan late last year and attending their camp this June.

"I’m just taking it as it goes," said Elaschuk with a shrug. "It’s open season right now with the three of us out there battling for a job."

This whole mid-season audition comes a couple of days after new kicker Louie Sakoda — the man recruited to replace Serna — pulled up lame in the pre-game warmup prior to Friday’s 39-28 loss to the Tiger-Cats.

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A pulled calf muscle will keep him out of Thursday’s game against the Als, but the Bombers won’t give up on him even if his replacement does well in Montreal.

"Louie Sakoda, we feel, can be an elite kicker in this league," said head coach Paul LaPolice. "These three guys… we really don’t know too much about them. We wanted to make sure we had our bases covered."

Interestingly, a fourth kicker — University of Calgary product Aaron Ifield — was auditioned after practice but LaPolice said he wasn’t being considered as the replacement for Serna/Sakoda.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

TODAY’S BOMBER REPORT C4