Renegades spring ball update

March 31, 2005 - Canadian Football League (CFL)
Ottawa Renegades News Release


OTTAWA – Building a successful CFL team happens in the off-season, and the Ottawa Renegades have spent the winter and early part of the spring on a construction mission to find quality football players throughout the continent.

The Renegades have signed 35 new players to the 2005 training camp roster, as the club continues to upgrade its talent across the board. Through CFL free agency, scouting camps, negotiation list additions and inking of players with previous professional and collegiate experience, the club has covered Canada and the U.S. in search of the athletes that will aid the Renegades next season and beyond.

"Call us the ‘New Energy Renegades'," said Joe Paopao, Ottawa's head coach and general manager. "We think we have the core of our team back, with players like the Josh Ranek's, Val St-Germain's, Gerald Vaughn's, Jerome Haywood's, George Hudson's, Mike Sutherland's. We feel we have a lot of upside in our one-two quarterback punch of Kerry Joseph and Brad Banks. But we knew we had to get better, and we think we have."

Paopao is "excited" about some of the new crop of talent heading to the nation's capital for the upcoming year, and feels some can make an immediate impact with the team.

"Guys like (running backs) Herbert Goodman and Ka'Ron Coleman, the Ray Jacob's and Bo Lewis, we went out and signed. We locked up Val and Sutherland and we have our top free agents back in Yo Murphy, Kai Ellis, Crance Clemons and George McCullough. We made a trade to get a Canadian offensive lineman in Pascal Cheron. We replaced Canadians who went elsewhere by signing Marc Pilon and Cameron Legault. We brought youth in with Matt Kirk and Christian Leibl-Cote as previous draft picks, and also J.F. Roy, who we had in camp last year. We also extended deals with Jason Armstead for the future, all of which gives us stability."

Meanwhile, the personnel department – chaired by Paopao, who had the general manager title added to his head coaching role in January – has enhanced its contact base. The Renegades coaching staff also has been to major college bowl games, free agent camps, evaluation camps and combines, while also making visits with different professional and collegiate programs from across North America to find players who could potentially suit up in an Ottawa uniform.

Kani Kauahi, the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Renegades, attended the Paradise Bowl; new defensive coordinator Greg Marshall took in the East-West Shrine Game, while the staff was on-site for the Senior Bowl. Three coaches – Jim Clark, Jaime Hill and Tommy Condell – were in Florida for the NFL Europe training camp in early March in search for skilled players and the team has hosted a pair of free agent camps (one in Miami and one in Orlando) this month. The Renegades will also be hosting a free agent camp in San Diego this weekend, with the majority of the staff – including Paopao – on hand.

"We have probably visited with or seen on film, more than 100 schools and over 2,000 players and we are pretty active on both sides of the border," said Paopao. "We are looking at all levels. Not just Division I, but also Division I-AA, Division II, Division III, NAIA and the CIS. Our coaches have been working hard since the staff was solidified in February. In the nine weekends since having our group in tact, they have spent five weekends actively working, looking and finding players. It was imperative for us to get out there."

Ottawa also hosted the 2005 CFL Evaluation Camp, which attracted the top Canadian college prospects – in preparation for next month's draft. Marshall and Chris McRobbie, the team's director of player personnel, also took in a combine at Université Laval on March 17 as part of the duo's role in handing the Canadian personnel department. The Renegades will also host their own local free agent camp in Ottawa at the end of April.

Members of the coaching staff will also be representing the Renegades at the East-West Bowl, a game featuring the top Canadian university underclassmen football players, in Waterloo on May 15.

"With the evaluation camps and the East-West game, we have had a first hand look at the young men who will be the stars of the future," said Paopao. "We are seeing them at their formative stage and it is another way of identifying prospects."

With only 58 days left until training camp, the Renegades are eyeing a few important dates. The NFL draft on April 23-24; the CFL Canadian College draft – which the club has actively been preparing for – on April 28 and the free agent camp in the capital at the end of April.



Canadian Football League Stories from March 31, 2005


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