E-Camp coming up!
As the next season of CFL football approaches one of the biggest events for recruiting new Canadian talent is the Evaluation Camp. There is where draft eligible Canadians are able to showcase their talents and skills and be evaluated by all the teams in the CFL. First, to get invited is an honour in itself. It is not everyone who gets invited, only the select few that have been chosen to come by multiple teams. This three day event is packed with being poked and prodded by Doctors, then performing physical tests such as the bench press and vertical jump, being interviewed by teams and finally taking part in on-field drills. It seems as though they want to do as much as they can in a limited time frame. The evaluation camp is like an intense job interview.
Preparation for this evaluation camp is very important as there is a pressure to impress everyone. Many players will start training at the end of their previous season to try and get a head start not even knowing if they will be invited. It is important to be at your best when being evaluated because the people evaluating might be your future employers. Countless hours are spent in the gym lifting weights, and on the track trying to perfect running techniques. However, when it comes time to shine at the camp the big difference is that there are over fifty people watching you do everything, watching your every move. They are all looking for any flaws you may have. Bench pressing in the gym with a spotter is not the same as having fifty people sitting mere feet away from you as you try to concentrate on lifting the 225lbs as many times as possible. The E-Camp can be very intense with all eyes upon you.
As far as I am concerned the physical testing is not the most stressful at the camp as it is something that all football players have had to do at the beginning of every season for years. Perhaps the most intense part of the camp is taking a written exam for some and for others there is the individual interviews with each of the teams’ scouts, coaches, and general managers. Every night players have interviews with different teams until about nine or ten o’clock at night. Some teams manage to make it very comfortable for players and really just want to get to know them. Others make it very intimidating to see how you will react under pressure, and many of them make you sit with a camera recording you so that they can dissect your body language at a later date. Furthermore, some of them will ask you questions that seem completely irrelevant, but they all know what they are looking for in their next draft pick or free agent.
In the end, the CFL E-Camp is a classy event, held in great hotel, where you get to meet many of the peers and coaches you have admired through the years. It is a once in life time opportunity that feels intense at times but an honour at others. It is a three day long interview where all your skills are proven and teams can really get a chance to know you more, not only as a football player, but also a person.