Despite plenty of familiar faces, it’s an open competition at Tiger-Cats training camp

The rain was chilling, the wind was cold and the sun never quite managed to free itself from behind the clouds, but the coaches and players’ spirits were anything but dreary on the first day of Hamilton Tiger Cats training camp.
“That was nice November weather,” joked coach and general manager Kent Austin, after calling off the second of two training camp practices due to the cold temperatures. Austin, who returns for his third year at the helm of the Ticats, was happy with what he saw from the team on their first day of training camp.
“The energy was good. It was good for our mental toughness to open up this way,” explained Coach Austin.
“I thought for the elements we did a pretty good job of communicating”, said quarterback Zach Collaros, who was one of the select few to brave the cold with no sleeves on Monday. “[We] still were able to complete some passes and we competed.”

The Ticats roster is dominated with veteran presence, and yet when asked if having so many veterans returning made the selection process easier Coach Austin was quick to point out the fact that everyone is competing for a spot on the team.
“Competition is good, it’s good to have competition at each position and it should make those players in that particular position better football players,” explained Austin.
A tight time-frame further condenses the learning curve, as the Ticats open the preseason in just over a week’s time, but Coach Austin is confident in his fellow coaches’ abilities to pick through the dearth of talent and make those difficult decisions.
“It’s our job, we’re not going to make any excuses about anything and I trust our coaches; they’ll do a good job there,” said Austin.
One of the players who’ll likely play a part in a prominent position battle is second-year running back Nic Grigsby. Grigsby will challenge CJ Gable and Mossis Madu for the starting running back role, although he’s not looking at it as a battle between players.
“The battle was with the weather today,” pointed out Grigsby, “there’s no competition.” We’re here to make each other better and we’re all going to contribute in a way to help our team.”
Grigsby added that having so many veterans returning has made for a cohesive locker room, where nobody is alone and everybody is helping to make each other better, an attitude that linebacker Simoni Lawrence exuded as well.
Lawrence, who was a standout on the Ticats defence last season, has taken on a leadership role with Hamilton’s young linebacking core, starting with putting his position up for grabs in training camp.
The veteran linebacker wants to see the best out of all of his teammates, and he knows that competition is what the league is fuelled on, which is why he’s more than happy to help the young guns take a shot at his job.
“I never come into camp thinking “you know, I’m Simoni Lawrence and I’ve got a guaranteed spot” or anything like that,” said the Ticats 2014 most outstanding defensive player. “I understand that they’re going to try to replace me every year, and that’s how it should be.”