Renegades take linebacker Cam Yeow with third overall pick
April 28, 2005 - Canadian Football League (CFL)
Ottawa Renegades News Release
OTTAWA â The Ottawa Renegades Football Club used five of its six picks, traded another and addressed the team's needs for the immediate future in the 2005 CFL Canadian Draft as the team counts down to only 30 days until training camp.
"We're extremely pleased with today's draft. We felt we addressed our needs and we're fortunate to pick up the guys we did," said Joe Paopao, Renegades head coach and general manager. "Overall, I thought our Canadian personnel department with Chris McRobbie (director, player personnel) and Greg Marshall (coordinator of the Canadian College draft, defensive coordinator and assistant head coach) did an outstanding job. Endless hours of tape, visiting schools, going to camps, and the relationships with the coaches in the CIS all paid off. With the picks we had, we improved ourselves as a team."
Ottawa began the 2005 CFL Canadian Draft with a bang in the opening round. The Renegades selected Cam Yeow, a linebacker out of the University of Akron with the second overall pick -- one selection after Calgary took Laval defensive lineman Miguel Robede to begin the 2005 draft.
Yeow, a solid, dependable linebacker who saw action in all 23 games over the last two seasons with Akron, is a 26-year-old native of Surrey, B.C. The 6-foot-1, 230-pounder was a league all-star throughout his four-year Canadian Junior Football League career before departing for his studies in the U.S.
Yeow made eight career starts at outside linebacker at Akron. In his senior season last fall, he appeared in all 11 games, including six starts at strongside linebacker. Yeow finished 10th on the team, and fourth among linebackers in tackles with 29. After being an All-American at Butte Junior College, he played in 12 games as a junior at Akron.
At the 2005 CFL Evaluation camp, Yeow ran the 40-yard dash in 4.81 seconds and the T-test in 4.50 seconds.
"Over the weeks leading up to the draft, we really stepped up from the standpoint that we looked to him and felt that he was going to be one of the first two picks," explained Paopao, of how Ottawa landed their first choice. "He was a guy people projected being a year away from being a starter and we think he's going to give us tremendous flexibility. He's an athletic guy with some range. Some of the reports from the NFL that stands out is that he is a passionate player â physical and aggressive. And we think some of it is maturity, with his age, he knows what it takes to get the job done."
After Saskatchewan took Matt O'Meara (OL, McMaster) and Chris Best (OL, Duke) third and fourth respectively, the first major transaction of the draft involved the Renegades.
Ottawa shipped the No. 5 overall draft pick in the first round to Montreal for Matt Kellett, a veteran and dependable Canadian specialist who handles punt, kickoff and field goal duties. The product of University of Saskatchewan comes to his fourth CFL team after stints in Edmonton, B.C. and most recently Montreal, where he spent the last two seasons with the Alouettes. Kellett, 32, has accumulated 684 points in his career, is 147/203 on field goals and has averaged 41.0 yards per punt since entering the league in 1999.
"We are pleased to have acquired an experienced kicker in a trade that will give us depth in our kicking game with our two (returning) young kickers, Sandro (Sciortino, kicker) and Pat (Fleming, punter). We also have (kicker) Derek Jones so there is competition there," said Paopao.
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Ottawa was without a second round selection after a series of prior trades. With the second pick of the third round, 20th overall, the Renegades selected Les Mullings, a running back out of Saint Mary's University -- a player the Renegades have had pegged for weeks, dating back to before the CFL Evaluation Camp last month. Mullings, 23, had an outstanding 2004 season with the Huskies. He had 362 rushing yards, compiled 444 receiving yards and added 90 kickoff return yards.
"We were excited Les was still around in the third round," said Paopao. "He was the athletic, big body type. He is a tremendous special teams player and we were pleased he was still around."
In the fourth round, 28th overall, the Renegades took Cory Hathaway, a tight end out of Tulsa (6-foot-4, 242 pounds), who is 21 years old. The fifth round saw the Renegades take Ajax, Ontario's Adrian Baird, a defensive lineman from University of Ottawa (6-foot-5, 245 pounds, 25-years-old). In the sixth and final round, Ottawa took Lenard Semajuste, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound fullback from Adams State. The 26-year-old is a local product. A native of the nation's capital, Semajuste went to Sir Robert Borden High School.
Wrap-up of Renegades draft picks
1st round, 2nd overall: Cam Yeow, LB, Akron
3rd round, 20th overall: Les Mullings, RB, St. Mary's
4th round, 28th overall: Cory Hathaway, Tulsa
5th round, 37th overall: Adrian Baird, Ottawa
6th round, 46th overall: Lenard Semajuste, Adams State
*** Renegades traded first round pick, fifth overall, to Montreal for kicker/punter Matt Kellett.
Canadian Football League Stories from April 28, 2005
- Boatmen feel good about new additions to crew - Toronto Argonauts
- 10,000 CFL Fans Follow 2005 CFL Canadian Draft on CFL.ca - CFL
- Alouettes draft Rouge et Or - Montreal Alouettes
- Ticats Select Lumsden, Five Others at CFL Draft - Hamilton Tiger-Cats
- Bombers haul in quality picks in CFL draft - Winnipeg Blue Bombers
- Esks trade Terry Vaughn and draft pick for Al's Loftus - Edmonton Elks
- Terry Vaughn joins the Alouettes - Montreal Alouettes
- Renegades take linebacker Cam Yeow with third overall pick - Ottawa Renegades
- Esks look to the future with draft picks - Edmonton Elks
- The best of the rest - Saskatchewan Roughriders
- Stamps select Robede first overall - Calgary Stampeders
- Riders pick three in first round of CFL Draft - Saskatchewan Roughriders
- Argos take Kazcur with first round pick - Toronto Argonauts
- Laval's Miguel Robede selected 1st Overall - CFL
- Ticats Take Lumsden With First Round Pick - Hamilton Tiger-Cats
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