Bracing for snow ball
Eskimos get winterized at practice
It was – 11C at Thursday’s Edmonton Eskimos practice.
“How do you like the weather?” head coach Jason Maas was asked. “Great!” he said. “This is the kind of weather you’re going to get at this time of year. The teams that adjust to it and practice in it and feel good about it generally do well.”
Whoever figured this day would come?
There’s serious work being done this week to winterize the Eskimos.
Throughout franchise history, until last November in Ottawa, the Eskimos were well named for games at this time of year. The colder, the better — the more snow, the merrier. The Eskimos, all those years, practised in it.
They had a huge advantage in the area of footwear in home games on the grass field at Commonwealth Stadium. And they were usually a veteran team with plenty of experience who didn’t huddle up in front of the propane heaters and wish they were home in Alabama.
But last year, in a driving snow storm in the crossover East Final in Ottawa, the Eskimos couldn’t handle the conditions and lost 35-23 to the RedBlacks and weren’t able to return to the Grey Cup game to defend their 2015 Grey Cup championship.
Pictures from that game decorate the walls of the Eskimos dressing room this week as a reminder.
“We have those pictures in our dressing room for a reason as a reminder about what it’s like in November. There’s not one person on our team who expected to go inside this week, I can assure you of that,” Maas said.
Two weeks ago in answer to a question your correspondent asked in a media scrum after the Eskimos came off the field after a practice in brutal wind conditions in regards to why he didn’t take the team into the field house, Maas indicated after last year, that wasn’t going to happen again. This wasn’t going to be a field house team at this time of year.
“That was one of the best practices I’ve seen us have and it was in 60 kilometre winds. Today was like a playoff day,” he said on that first practice day prior to last week’s win over Calgary.
“You don’t get many chances at this time of year to face winds like we faced like we did today. It was like we faced in Hamilton in the semifinal last year.
“I’m hoping we get a really big, heavy snowfall here the next week or so as well so we know what it’s like to play in the rain, wind, snow, sleet and everything. We’ll be prepared.”
Well, Maas got his wish in the 48 hours prior to putting his team on the plane Friday for Regina and the game that essentially will determine whether the Eskimos play their playoff games in the East or in the West with a possibility still existing that they could play host to the West semifinal next weekend at home.
“Conditions are the conditions. We want to play in all of them and get used to it,” said Maas after the closed practice Wednesday. “To have it in the last week of the regular season is what we need to deal with. Zero or minus two at this time of year is cold because we haven’t faced it for a while. To concentrate and stay focused is really what I want our team to deal with. It looks like the forecast in Regina is calling for it. It’s like the last game of the season for us last year as well,” he said of the Eastern Final in Ottawa.”
Thursday it was worse. Or as Maas said “even better.”
Maas said it’s an Edmonton thing.
“I think it’s a mindset that Edmontonians take with the weather. Our team traditionally has been no different.
“Part of it is just going out there and braving it and dealing with it. We get to practice in it more than probably other teams. The more opportunities you get the more you understand it’s just a mindset.
“Being cold is real. You have to adjust to it. The more you have been put in that position the better off you are.”
One thing about heading to Regina from Edmonton to play a football game is the weather you get there is almost always the exact same weather you practiced in before you left Edmonton.
The forecast for Saturday at 5 p.m. in Regina is for -7C and snowing.
“If that’s what it is then great, we’ll be prepared for it,” Maas said. “I think our guys are really cherishing this moment. They spent almost a calendar year waiting for a second opportunity and I think they want to make the most of it.”
This is the team with the ‘Built for November’ slogan that won the last 10 games of 2015, six of seven from Sept. 23 through to the East Final last year and came through October at 4-0 this year.
But the Eskimos needed to be winterized.