March 2012 Archives

• Adrian Davis, ancien joueur de la LFBQ et un membre actuel des Stampeders de Calgary
• Robert Hurtubise, Directeur Technique de Football Québec
• Stéphane Nadon, entraîneur de l'équipe MU17 de la LFBQ au tournoi Challenge Wilson

• Adrian Davis, former QBFL player and a current member of the Calgary Stampeders
•  Robert Hurtubise, Football Quebec Technical Director
  
• Stephane Nadon, coach of the QBFL MU17 Wilson Challenge team

(important note: the award presented to Marc-André indicates his position as a receiver. On the field, however, he always played on the o-line)

The final awards to be presented were the Most Valuable Player awards at the QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, DB, LB and special teams positions in each division. The ceremonies concluded at about 2:15 pm with some final remarks by Louis Poulin to formally close the books on the 2011 season and mark the start of the 2012 season.

The complete list of award winners can be found in the PDF file below and a very comprehensive report on this event can also be found on the Footbec site.

I wish to express my appreciation to league president Marie-Josée Lee for making it possible for me to attend the event and see how much the league has changed since the first banquet that I attended in February 2005 following the 2004 season.

• équipes junior: Stallions de St-Lazare et Cougars de St-Léonard
  
• Cégeps: Vanier, Victoriaville, Champlain St-Lambert, Champlain Lennoxville, Collège John Abbott, Édouard-Montpetit et Lionel-Groulx
  
• fournisseurs: Jostens, Schutt, Russell, Riddell, Athletic Academy

• junior teams: St-Lazare Stallions and St-Leonard Cougars
  
• CEGEPs: Vanier, Victoriaville, Champlain St-Lambert, Champlain Lennoxville, John Abbott College, Édouard-Montpetit and Lionel-Groulx
  
• suppliers: Jostens, Schutt, Russell, Riddell, Athletic Academy

About the selection of his coaches

It's almost set. Offensively we're pretty much set. From last year, our o-line coach Steve Graham is returning. Steve was someone that I had a chance to coach when I was at Concordia and also when I came here and I started asking around about how things went down Steve was someone who got high marks from the players and also from the people down here. The other guy we added is a gentleman called Bob Bindon. Bob will work with our o-line. Also, Bob was the head coach at John Abbott until 1997 when they were AAA. I coached with Bob at Concordia, 98 to 2001. We went to the Vanier Cup together. Bob coached at Concordia and went on to coach at McGill and spent last year at Queen's. We also retained Yves Cuillerier. He was on the staff last year as a receiver coach. The last gentleman on offense that we have is a guy called Jeff Roberts. Jeff is a Greenfield Park guy, who was part of some great football teams at Champlain Lennoxville as a player, at Bishop's as a player, and he's gone on to coach extensively since then. On defense, we brought back Lou Chapman as the d-line coach. Lou was the head coach of the Abbott team before Justin and Lou is still employed at Abbott as an academic advisor, very passionate guy about football. The last gentleman right now that's official is Pierre-Paul Dorélien. I know Pierre-Paul through common friends. Pierre-Paul was at CVM, Vieux-Montreal, when the program started to change direction and was part of some great teams at CVM.

(ed.: since this interview, the Islanders have added Marc Faubert and Derrick Joseph to their defensive staff. Marc is a Phys. Ed. teacher at St-Thomas High School. He is a former John Abbott football player who coached there in the 90's before moving on to Concordia University. Derrick and Patrick Gregory go back to their days at Bishop's. He was an outstanding CIS football player there. He is an experienced football coach who most recently was part of the North Shore program. Derrick was the DC for the 2011 Mustangs.)

About his approach to coach selection

The thing for me that is important, I mean, John Abbott has a long tradition of football. They've played football since the early seventies. Lots of successes and there is a lot of people for whom Abbott means a lot, it's been a big part of their lives and Bob and Lou and Steve even, there is some people there, their roots run deep at Abbott. But I also wanted, it was important to bring a kind of fresh outlook also. I'm part of that, obviously, because my roots at Abbott are just starting but it was also important in the coaching staff that that would reflect that.

About off-season training

Our players have been handed a weight training plan, they're working out with that. The other phase, what we call the agility workout. We're going to have 12 of those, once a week, we start on Thursday and then we are going to go every Tuesday evening and basically we're developing the explosiveness and movement skills. They'll be one hour sessions in a team format.

We'll start to work together, the coaches and the players, and start to build for 2012. Then the second part is what we call football specific workouts. We'll have eight of those. We start on February 25, then we have seven more through March and April.

About goals for the upcoming season

What I haven't done is set goals in terms of wins and losses and I probably won't do that. We have set objectives on what we want to get out of our off-season, our winter/spring workouts from building team cohesion, from learning how to work hard together, bringing energy and enthousiasm and all that. This program is going to be better. There is no doubt in my mind it's going to succeed from a football point of view. In terms of wins and losses, but rather than focus on that, the core word is focus on the process, focus on the culture, and I believe that. I believe you have to look at how you do things, put in place the structure to do things in the right way and surround our program with good people, good, talented people and once we do that then the rest will take care of itself and I firmly believe in that.

About the support that the football program receives at John Abbott

I'll tell you what, Zbig, there is no doubt that the level of passion, the level of excitement that the guys have is no less than what I have experienced at university level. And I would even apply that to John Abbott - there is a buzz, a level of excitement about the changes that are on the way and that goes beyond just the people in athletics. It's very clear, there is people that genuinely want to see the football program in our case or the athletics be something that we're very proud of and at the same level as some of the other things at the school. I sense all of that. The people I've talked to have all been very helpful, they all want to know how I'm doing, they all volunteer some help.

About differences between CEGEP and university football, especially three downs vs four downs.

I told you, I'm exited about that. I might petition for a fifth down but I don't know if I would get that. I'm looking forward to play calling four downs. I've been doing it for the last 10 years at the three down level. To me, as an offensive guy, to be able to have that extra down, to be able to run on a first down if you choose to and still be able to have an open situation. A pass on a first down, even if it's incomplete, you can still have an option to run or pass, I think it's outstanding. I'm looking forward to four downs.

About his approach to building a team

I think you have to have in place a structure, a system, a terminology that you put in place. That's your base and then you need to be able to tailor it to where your strengths and your weaknesses are. You have to play to your strengths, you have to play away from your weaknesses. You have to be able to use what you have and attack your opponent's weaknesses and maybe work around what their areas of strength are without necessarily changing who you are from week to week.

About his approach to recruiting players

I've visited, I haven't kept count, probably at least 12 different high schools individually and basically what I do when I go in, I'm going to Cite-des-Jeunes tomorrow, we've been to Dalbé-Viau, College Ste-Anne in Lachine. But what I want to do is I want to go into these schools, first of all make them aware of John Abbott, who we are, what we do. I want to tell them about what our plan is, what our vision is for this football program and I also what to find out in those schools if they're graduating players of quality that have an interest to study in the West Island, studying at John Abbott, studying in English, playing football out here and all that. My challenge, our challenge, is to go and find those Abbott guys, guys that are looking for a high academic experience, they're looking for a good football experience also.

About relationship with midget teams

I'm sensitive to what's going on, you know, and what I've told the coaches that I've spoken to is that, especially with the North Shore, Lakeshore, St-Lazare, we're in each others' backyard and that we're basically neighbors anyway. So, I'd like to put in place a relationship of respect and also a relationship of working together. I understand what they're trying to do, I understand how much it means to them to be successful and I don't need to tell them how important that is to us also.

About making JAC games more visible

You know what would be interesting, even if we couldn't get it televised, I think the whole aspect of webcasting that would be definitely an avenue now that could be interesting. I understand there is cost in televising and all that but I think now you could do it on a webcast probably with minimum technology as far as the camera and stuff. I think there is stuff there that can be done for sure.

About his own coaching style

My plan is to coordinate the offense and play call this year on offense so obviously I'm going to be very involved in the play-by-play progress of the team on offense. I also, as the head coach, have to be in control of special teams and then defense but my approach on game day I can be pretty passionate. I'm pretty passionate about football. How it's perceived I think the closer we get to game day, the closer we get to those very emotional moments the calmer I tend to be. My experience at university, I tend to be more calm in those types of moments just because I think that's what you need to be.

About his approach to leading the players

I think you need to be consistent. I think what the guys will struggle with, if you're calm and all of a sudden you're a madman. I think they'll adjust, they'll know that some guys are in your face passionate,some guys will love that, some guys it won't be as effective but if it's consistent they'll be able to adjust and usually prosper with it. I think what's hard is when they're not too sure what to expect. I think when they expect to be yelled at and they're not yelled at or when they're not used to that and all of a sudden it comes out I think that's where most difficulties come from.