Ready to ride into 2025.
The 2025 Calgary Stampeders season kicked off on Wednesday at McMahon Stadium with the first day of rookie camp. The Stamps took the field with a bevy of fresh faces as they began this season’s journey. Calgary managed to sign all 10 draft picks from last week’s CFL Draft with all of them taking the field on day one including first-overall pick Damien Alford.
Alford is Ready to Work
Alford made it to day one of rookie camp despite being at Kansas City Chiefs mini-camp just last week. The 6-foot-6, 210 lbs. wide receiver says he’s ready to battle for the team that took him with the first pick.
“They drafted me first, they wanted me here,” said Alford. “I did the camp with KC, it obviously didn’t go how anybody planned it but I’m here now and my one-hundred per cent is right here for this team and the future is the future.”
Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson spoke about what he saw from Alford following day one.
“If you watched practice today, he had a good start,” Dickenson said. “He looks the part; he can be a good player for us. We also have to understand he’s a young player who hasn’t played Canadian rules for a long time. He probably could have gotten to a second mini-camp but he felt it was best to get up here and compete and start with the rest of the guys. I thought he did a nice job today.”
New Turf Who Dis?
The new look at field level was obvious the second you walked into the building on Wednesday. The Stampeders laid a new turf down over the offseason along with other moves to improve the players’ day to day. Dickenson spoke about the upgrades.
“It’s going to be a great environment,” explained Dickenson. “The sidelines are wider, softer. We did have a few guys peeling out, that’s to be expected, it has to settle a bit, but I think that everyone was happy getting the new surface. It feels good, it looks good, it’s going to be a positive for our club.
Calgary Kid is Excited For The Opportunity
The Stamps used their second pick in the first-round on local product, Max von Muehldorfer who dominated the bench press at the combine putting up 34 reps of 225 lbs. The hulking defensive lineman says it’s surreal to be picked by his hometown team.
“It’s cliche to say but it’s a dream come true,” he said. “As a kid in Calgary coming to Stampeder games every year, I have to pinch myself sometimes. When I first got my locker, I took a hard look at it and I was like this is coming true, I’m playing for the Stampeders, which is an amazing experience.”
von Muehldorfer says that despite his previous powerlifting experience, he has to be able to translate his gym strength into playing strength.
“There is weight room strength but then there is football strength,” he explained. “There is definitely a difference and for me it’s just learning how to use that weight room strength to be football strength and that’s something that comes with time. I talked to my coach at Western and he said it just takes time, you have to develop as a player and that will help you play further.”
The Stampeders continue with rookie camp on Thursday and Friday before main camp kicks off on Sunday morning.