Aloha, good island vibes ...
June Jones wearing a special Hawaiian gift: a necklace of sea shells from the islands
June Jones has draped some karma around his neck.
During several training camp sessions, including Monday morning’s, the Hamilton TigerCats head coach has been wearing a necklace made of bright white sea shells, which he was given last July in Hawaii.
Jones is deeply connected to Hawaii. He was the University of Hawaii quarterback in the mid-1970s, was the college team’s head coach from 1999 to 2007, and later coached a high school there. He owned a house on “the Big Island” (Island of Hawaii) until last February and still spends a significant amount of time there.
“This was given to me by a well-known guy there,” Jones said. “All the shells are from different islands in Hawaii. The small ones are Wahine shells, the big ones are Kahuna shells. They have meaning and they’re from every island there. So, when I was given it — it’s not given to very many people — he said, ‘You have to wear this and I expect to see it on television.’
“I make sure I wear it every once in a while so I don’t get bad vibes. I had it here last year but didn’t wear it. This is our year, so I don’t want to screw it up by not wearing my shells.”
Jones said that when he puts the necklace on he thinks of “friends and family” affected by the Kilauea volcano explosion.
He emphasized how the eruption has severely affected tourism, even on the other side of the Island of Hawaii, which in turn is resulting in lost jobs.
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The Tiger-Cats will hold their day-before walk-through practice at Tim Hortons Field on Thursday before hosting the Argonauts Friday night. The walk-through will be a chance to orient their new players to the logistics of their home stadium. ***
The start time for the Ticats’ second exhibition game, in Montreal Saturday, June 9, has been moved up an hour, to noon. The city will be inundated with F-1 fans for the Montreal Grand Prix, which will be held Sunday afternoon, and the attendant practices and lower-tier races. Local hotels have all been long reserved for F-1 multiday packages. The Ticats will stay Friday night at a residence of McGill University, home of the Alouettes’ home field, and will take the train back to Hamilton Saturday evening. ***
For those of you keeping score at home, after Friday’s Davon Coleman trade the Ticats now have a fourth-round draft choice for 2019, which they didn’t have before. But they don’t yet have one for the fifth round or the sixth (the latter went to B.C. with Coleman). They also have two in 2019’s second round, having picked up Montreal’s pick in the Ryan Bomben deal.