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CFL breaks with tradition, moving CFL combine from Toronto to Regina

Nov 15, 2016 | 3:15 PM

REGINA — The CFL is breaking with 17 years of tradition and moving its biggest off-season event, the national players’ combine, west to Saskatchewan.

The league will host the combine as part of a new event called CFL Week from March 20-26 in Regina. The combine has been held in Toronto since 2000.

CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge and Saskatchewan Roughriders CEO and president Craig Reynolds made the announcement Tuesday afternoon from the central prairie city.

Regina will be the first of many rotating stops for the combine and the larger CFL Week.

“We’ll start in Saskatchewan and the idea is to roll it out to other CFL cities,” Orridge said.

The three-day player combine has previously seen the likes of Saskatchewan defensive back Tevaughn Campbell (in his second CFL season) and Hamilton defensive lineman Justin Capiciotti (in his fifth).

Both were used in rotational defensive schemes throughout the season by the Roughriders and the Tiger-Cats.

The combine allows Canadian players to show off their athletic and football-specific skills to the league’s coaches in hopes of landing a roster spot on one of the league’s nine teams.

“I think the idea is to showcase these guys,” Orridge said. “Not only the guys that we have, but the new stars, the up-and-coming stars.”

University of Regina Rams head coach Steve Bryce said shifting the combine west will be a helpful boost for western-Canadian football players, not just those in Saskatchewan.

“There’s an expectation for the participating player to pay his own way to attend some of these things. And if there are vacancies at the combine, it could be filled in with more local players from the Canwest,” he said.

Bryce just finished his first season as head coach of the Rams football program, leading his team and quarterback Noah Picton to a 6-3 record and a playoff loss to the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West semifinals.

The shift of venue, Bryce said, will increase the accessibility players gain to scouts and teams’ personnel.

The same goes for football players in junior programs like the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL), he said.

“(Pro scouts’) eyes are on local talent that particular day or two, or that particular week. So having the scouts in town and drawing attention to local athletes, I think that’s going to be good for junior teams as well,” Bryce said.

Current starters Dan Clark and Andrew Harris both came to the CFL via the CJFL — Clark with the Regina Thunder and Harris with the Vancouver Island Raiders. Clark was born in Regina, and Harris was born in Winnipeg.

Former Roughriders and B.C. Lions running back Stu Foord is another Regina Thunder alumnus.

Orridge said that along with the combine, there will be several media and fan-related events throughout CFL Week in an effort to increase fan and media accessibility to coaches and players and to showcase the league’s players and their stories.

Evan Radford, The Canadian Press