Ex-CFLer recalls physical grind of training camps
Jerry Friesen says unique ‘characters’ helped him survive gruelling sessions
Jerry Friesen remembers the good ol’ days, if you want to call them that.
Friesen survived Canadian Football League training camps in the late 1970s and early 1980s, back when the camp was a grind, both merciless and gruelling.
Training camp tested endurance, as much as anything else, with two practices daily and full body contact. If there wasn’t hitting, it wasn’t a drill.
“Full gear, pounding away,” said Friesen, 61.
The former Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes linebacker has been a casual observer at this year’s Riders camp in Saskatoon.
When it comes to his own training camp memories, a bunch of real “characters” stand out. Back then, there was a real need to let loose, he said.
“We had guys like Bob (Bearcat) Poley, Roger Aldag, Mike Samples, Lyall Woznesensky,” said Friesen. “Just with those characters, you never knew what was going to happen from practice to practice, day to day. They were the instigators and they were always up to something. And I think, when you look at training camp, that was probably one of the survival methods.
“We always had to do something. Whether it was a distraction, it was good for players. It was always entertaining, that’s for sure.”
Things went a little differently for players back in the 1980s.
“You’d go for a couple of hours, and then go again late in the afternoon for a couple of hours, with meetings in between,” said Friesen, who won the CFL’s prestigious Tom Pate Memorial Award in 1985 for outstanding community service.
“Every hour was filled, let’s just say that.”
That’s not to say the modern era CFL player has it easy at training camp, which now includes one practice daily and several sessions that feature non-contact “walkthroughs.”
Friesen — who worked as an assistant coach with the Roughriders under both Jim Daley and Greg Marshall — said today’s training camp is more condensed and perhaps even more demanding psychologically than it is physically. There’s less room for error.
“The intensity and the demands are there without having that space in between to recover, both physically and mentally,” he said. “You go out here now and you start at 9 (a.m.) and you’re done at 12:30 (p.m.) and you can’t make a mistake. Then you have to go out and study and absorb all that new material and do another four hours the next day.”
Friesen’s last CFL camp was as an assistant coach in 2011 with Marshall and the Roughriders in Regina.
FOOTBALL CAREER GOES FULL CIRCLE
These days, Friesen’s football career is coming full circle. He’s back in Saskatoon with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies as an assistant coach under another former CFLer and former Alouette, Scott Flory.
“I’m looking really forward to it,” said Friesen. “It’s going to be exciting. I’m anticipating lots of good things.”
He started with his alma mater as an assistant coach for nine seasons, winning the Vanier Cup in 1990. After a year as the Riders’ linebacker coach, he joined the Calgary Dinos as their defensive coordinator. He also coached the University of Alberta Golden Bears, University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and Langley Rams. He’s been a guest coach for the B.C. Lions.
“I’m still involved in football. I still enjoy it,” he said. “Training camp is always a real challenge for you because you prepared all winter for it, initiating your input getting ready for the season, and this really sets the tempo. It’s real important to have a good training camp.”
Friesen, who was born in Rosthern, didn’t play football until Grade 11. He was a hockey player — “a thumper,” as he puts it — but realized he couldn’t skate well enough to be a thumper at a higher level, so he turned his focus to football.
His playing career ended in 1986 due to an Achilles injury.
If he were playing today, Friesen said, his role would change accordingly.
“Mentality wise, I’d probably still be a linebacker, but I wouldn’t be an inside guy,” he said. “The game has opened up and has become so much more (about) using the space so much better. Now, I think I’d be on the edge, running, and not in the interior.”
But not running two-a-days, either.