Jun
Chevrier abandons diet
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
Randy Chevrier has spent the past three weeks trying to undo the effects of a healthy off-season.
The Calgary Stampeders long-snapper had hopes of dropping around 25 pounds from his 2008 playing weight to become a more effective player on special teams. And he was about five pounds away from meeting that call when he got a call from Stamps coach and general manager John Hufnagel, telling him the team was planning to utilize him as a reserve offensive lineman this season.
So long, diet.
“Well, I’ve been hanging out at the buffets,” joked Chevrier on Tuesday. “And as you know I went to Tim Hortons a day early (for a community appearance), and I’ll be there again (today).
“Initially it was a shock, because obviously I’ve been preparing my body (to play mostly special teams)during the off-season. But once I got over that and realized how it could help me to contribute to the team and prolong my career, I realized that it’s something I kind of have to grab by the horns and try to excel at.”
Chevrier, who turns 33 Saturday, spent most of his career as a backup defensive lineman in addition to his long-snapping role, at which he’s arguably the best in the Canadian Football League. But the knee injury suffered by Fabio Filice in practice three days before the Grey Cup convinced Hufnagel it might not be a bad idea to have another option should he be short on bodies during a game.In fact, Chevrier took O-line reps during the final two practices in Montreal last November for just such a possibility.
“Chevy is what he is as a defensive lineman. If he’s needed, he’s very capable,” said Hufnagel. “But the defence, for the most part, played without Chevy in the rotation. So I thought this would be a great opportunity for him, so that if needed to play, he’d have a training camp under his belt of practising the position . . . He accepted it very well.”
Now, Chevrier is looking to maintain, and possibly add to, his bulk in time for Sunday’s first sessions of Stampeder training camp. When he got the news, “it was kind of hard because my body was going in one direction, and I had to put the brakes on the weight-loss regimen and try to gather myself and get back to a play-able weight for the offensive line.”
Chevrier’s last experience on the offensive line was during a New York Jets training camp five years ago.
