Training camp draws Riders fans of all ages
Dave Herron and his grandchildren were among the Saskatchewan Roughriders fans who turned out for the team’s training camp at Griffiths Stadium on Wednesday.
Herron thought it would be fun to take four-year-old Braylon and two-year-old Ashton to the stadium for the day to watch the action.
“It’s a beautiful day and it’s much more fun doing this than having the kids sit in front of a screen,” he said.
They were excited to go to because their parents are season ticket holders and they’ve already caught the bug.
“I think they were pretty pumped,” Herron said. “(Braylon) went and found his Riders hat as soon as he knew we were coming here.”
The 18-day training camp opened on May 20 on the University of Saskatchewan campus. It has also drawn former players like Wayne Shaw, who played for the Riders from 1961 to 1972.
“I’ve been coming every day. I played with the Riders for 12 years so it’s hard for me not to come here and watch these guys,” Shaw said.
One of his favourite memories is travelling across Canada and going to four Grey Cups. While watching the training camp, he likes to track his old number, 50, he said.
“For a few years after I retired in 1972, they semi-retired my number and didn’t give it to anybody else. But now everybody that works for the Riders has forgotten about me.”
Sitting with Shaw on Wednesday was Dena Hoyseth, who is approaching 85 years old and has been a season ticket holder for 40 years.
Hoyseth said she gained an interest in football and the Roughriders in high school, from her algebra teacher.
“We had to go out to every football game; then we got questioned the next week: ‘Did we get a chance to play that new play?’”
Since then, she’s never lost interest, and is one of the original Grey Cup Grannies — a group of women who dressed up in green pinafores and white bloomers to cheer on the team.
“It’s a good sport — the players, they are so athletic. I never know the score, don’t know the names and numbers, I just watch the players,” she said.
She wasn’t able to buy season tickets this year because of her health, and she’s not sure what it will be like to watch the games on TV instead, she said.
“The Rider office said, ‘You know, you’re going to lose all your seniority,’ and I said ‘So be it, I can’t do it.’”
The Roughriders will be in Saskatoon for training camp until June 6, then head back to Regina for their final pre-season game on June 8.