A week after exams have finished, it’s evaluation time for the Gryphons.
The Gryphs are holding their annual Spring Camp this week at Alumni Stadium. It started Sunday with a power practice, a pair of two-hour sessions with just a half-hour break in between.
“There’s a lot of evaluation going on right now,” head coach Kevin MacNeill said. “We’re trying to give guys that were on the scout team last year an opportunity to compete for a starting job. It’s really a nice competing period and it’s a way for us to teach those guys, get them acclimated with the systems and open up the package a little bit to get the people all on the same page.”
The team is to hold daily two-hour evening sessions for four consecutive days before completing the on-field portion of the week with a scrimmage against the York Lions at York Friday.
The players expected to return to the team in the fall have been working out since their Mitchell Bowl loss to the Montreal Carabins last November and there won’t be any surprises for the Gryphon coaching staff in regards to each player’s conditioning.
“We see these guys all the time,” MacNeill said. “We know who’s training and who’s not. We have a great trainer and a great athletic support staff so we know what’s going on with these guys. Now is an opportunity for them to showcase their skills and see how much they can grasp and be able to apply it on the field.”
It’s also an opportunity for MacNeill to run a competitive camp that’s longer than a couple of days. He was named the interim head coach late last year after former head coach Stu Lang stepped down following the Mitchell Bowl. Lang has remained with the team in an advisory role.
“To be honest, because it’s been such a smooth transition with our staff staying intact, it hasn’t really been that different,” MacNeill said. “The transition’s gone fantastic. The kids have all bought in. The change has been really seamless and there haven’t been any hiccups with it. It’s been nice and it’s been really fun.”
The Gryphs are to film the scrimmage with York and they’ll view it numerous times during the next three months to prepare for training camp as the scrimmage will give the players a chance to show everything they learned this week.
“It’s just live reps, live reps against another coloured jersey and that’s an opportunity for guys to take what we’ve done and with a little more pressure, a tougher situation, a good opponent and be able to showcase what they can do,” MacNeill said. “It’ll give us some good film to go into the summertime to make our evaluations.”
And it’ll give the players a chance to play against an opponent rather than a teammate at practice. The hits in practice are usually not as hard as ones in game play.
“There’s a degree of respect,” MacNeill said. “They all love each other and they all respect each other. Football is football, but at the end of the day they care about each other and they respect each other. That’s the key component that we have. Not that we don’t respect our opponents, but it’s a little different when you’re hanging out with these guys in the locker room and they’re your family. It’s definitely going to be a good opportunity for those guys to showcase what they can do.”
Following the scrimmage with York, the next time the Gryphs will be on the field in a team capacity will be for the start of their training camp Aug. 15.
The Gryphs are to begin defence of their OUA championship Yates Cup title with the start of their regular season Aug. 28 at Alumni Stadium against the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Written By Rob Massey