It’s great to be back in training camp again and getting ready for a new season.
During the previous off-season, I was working in real estate in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area but this off-season I moved back to the Ottawa area in a town called Arnprior. Once I get more well known in the town, I can probably get back into real estate next off-season.
In the meantime, I did a little training work at a football sports camp for a bunch of high school kids in Arnprior. They went to OFSAA, which is the Ontario high school championship, so the kids were all pumped. There was tons of them in a gym and the gym owner approached me and asked me if I’d run a football camp for them. I had 13 kids and I taught them how to train properly for football and they all loved it.
We did it three days a week — two days lifting and one day doing speed and agility. The kids loved it and they saw awesome results, so it was really rewarding to do that.
It was definitely a fun off-season, but I’m definitely glad to be back. I was starting to get pretty anxious for football to start again when May kicked in.
It’s exciting to be back in camp but to be honest, the morning after the first day is the worst morning all season. It’s just absolutely awful but in the next couple of days, our bodies will get used to the pounding again, so it’ll be all right. But Monday morning was a little stiff and I spent an extra 10 minutes in the tub warming up.
It’s amazing for me to realize that I have the most seniority on the team among the defensive linemen now. It’s always nice to come into camp with the same defensive coordinator we’ve had the past few years in Chris Jones. There’s a little stress mentally — you can just go out there and play football and not think as much as some of the new guys, so that’s definitely an advantage.
And being one of the older guys, I assume more of a leadership role now within the group. I help out the young guys. The team depends you a little more when you’re in a role like that, so I’ve been enjoying it and I’m really excited for this season.
I was heartbroken all off-season over how the 2010 season ended and it gave me a lot of motivation to not let that happen again this year. I mean, it’s still bugging me and it probably will until Week 1 and we get back on the football field.
We have lot of motivation to come out this year and finish the job that we started last year. A lot of us were in tears last year after the West final because we were so disappointed and we’re determined not to let that happen again this year.
Justin Phillips, #44
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