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Training camp continued on Tuesday with a morning practice at McMahon Stadium and team photo day.
Tuesday marked the Stamps’ debut of the “power practice,” which consists of break from the usual two-a-day routine and features a slightly longer single session with a 20-minute break in the middle.
Decade for Cote
Rob Cote is the last man standing.
The veteran fullback from Cochrane is the final Stampeders player remaining from the team inherited by John Hufnagel in 2008. Do the math and you realize that means Cote is heading into his 10th camp with the Stamps.
“When you start playing,” he said, “10 is kind of a pie-in-the-sky number. Not a goal, but an aspiration. To be here now after this many years is pretty cool. I still remember very vividly the first camp. A bunch of them in between I probably couldn’t recall so accurately but that (first) one I remember distinctly because I was in way over my head.”
Then just 20 years old, with two years of junior football experience as a slotback, Cote was playing an unfamiliar position – fullback – and resisting the urge to ask teammates for autographs.
“So I’m standing in the huddle with Henry Burris, Joffrey Reynolds, Jeremaine Copeland, Nik Lewis, Ken-Yon Rambo, Jay McNeil, Jeff Pilon . . . it was just a ‘wow’ moment,” he said. “I had to call my buddies and tell them what I was doing. This was the team that I grew up watching. That was a ton of fun. Do I get star-struck in the huddle anymore? No. Bo (Levi Mitchell)’s a pretty cool guy but I know him well enough now.”
Cote has withstood the test of time, but he’s not about to take things for granted.
“I do think (playing 10 seasons) is a very cool accomplishment, but it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “I’m not entitled to anything. I have to work just as hard as the next guy and I’m just competing for a spot on the roster, just like everybody else. This is very much a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. It’s about proving yourself every day. It’s not about what I did in June 2007.”
Quotable
Veteran receiver Marquay McDaniel on power practices: “I liked it. Get on the field and we’re done by 11:40 and we got a few hours of rest. When I first came into the league (with Hamilton) we did power practices and I liked them.”
Tomorrow’s schedule
There are two practices on Wednesday – the morning session runs from 9:05 a.m. to 11 a.m. while the afternoon practice goes from 4:20 p.m. to 6:05 p.m. ENG cameras will be permitted to shoot from approximately 9:05 to 9:40 a.m. during morning session and from 4:20 to 4:40 p.m. during afternoon practice.
More coverage
Stamps TV: Dickenson post-practice comments
Stamps TV: One-on-one with Marquay McDaniel