By Allen Cameron
Calgary Herald

In the weeks leading up to training camp, when talking with various Calgary Stampeder coaches, the topic of players to watch would invariably arise.

After discussing the usual suspects, one name would invariably come into the conversation, volunteered by a coach as someone who had improved in leaps and bounds thanks to his off-season training regimen.

Eight days into the Stamps’ 2011 camp, Johnny Forzani has lived up to those pre-season whispers. The second-year receiver, who was taken by the Stamps in the supplemental draft a year ago, has shown speed, strength and, most importantly, the poise he lacked as a rookie, and is making a strong argument to get some significant playing time this season after dressing for just six games in an injury-plagued 2010.

“Totally different,” nodded Stamps receivers coach Pete Costanza. “He’s more confident, and he feels more confident in knowing his assignments. I think last year, his big thing was not being sure of what he was doing, so he played slow. He really worked hard in the off-season, and I think it shows.

“And what told me that he was ready was when him and Hank were out here before camp. Hank told him to go out and run a certain play. John lined up and ran the right route. He did it again and again.’’

‘‘I saw that and thought, ‘His head’s in the right place.’ He just really cared about becoming a skilled receiver, and it obviously shows. You noticed it. I think a lot of people noticed it.”

Forzani made three catches as a rookie, but was hampered by leg injuries that took away his most valuable asset — his jaw-dropping speed.

This past off-season, he got healthy, and worked hard on and off the field, with various Stampeders who spend their off-season here, and then making a trip to Texas to spend a week working out with Nik Lewis.

The hard work has paid off, and he made a terrific catch in the late stages of Saturday’s intrasquad game that showed he’s got more field presence than he had a year ago — he had to be conscious of the sidelines while gathering the ball in — and a set of hands that belies a receiver who didn’t play a down of football in high school.

“Being healthy, I notice a difference,” said the 22-year-old Dr. E.P. Scarlett High School grad. “I think it’s just being around the guys you’re going to be around for a full year — you pick up things. The whole camaraderie thing is easier to build. And when you get out here, things just happen smoothly.

“I’m one year into the playbook, I understand the concept of the plays a lot better than I did last year. Missing the time in camp, you kind of mentally get out of it a little bit. But I worked really hard in the off-season to get better. This is pretty much all I’ve been worrying about. This is my life.”

And it’s a life for which, despite his lack of high school experience, he seemed destined, considering the rich history of his family ties to the Stamps. His dad, Tom, is on the team’s Wall of Fame after a brilliant career as a receiver, and Tom can be seen at most practices, and invariably has a short chat with his son afterwards.

As well, uncle John is another former Stamp and a current co-owner of the team, while Stamps coach and GM John Hufnagel is Forzani’s godfather.

Johnny Forzani doesn’t back away from the family ties. But he wants to be judged on his own merit, not for his connections.

“I wish it didn’t enter peoples’ thought processes, but it does,” he conceded. “And it can be annoying. People might get the wrong impression. But I’m over it. I understand what it is, I understand that I deserve to be here, and the guys that are here know that.

“I would rather the coaches be tougher on me. I had nothing to do with being here. My dad? Huff? All that stuff is out of my control. I didn’t set any of that up. I love being a Forzani. But I’m my own man, and this is the way it worked out. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Huff will yell at me like he would yell at anybody else. And he absolutely should.”