May
Singh puts focus on camp for kids
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
Bobby Singh is going to camp this month, only it won’t be to a CFL training camp.
Released last week by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the veteran guard is between gigs but still tethered to the B.C. Lions, the team that cast him off in 2007 after a 76-game career in orange and black.
A number of Singh’s former teammates — among them Geroy Simon, Javy Glatt, Angus Reid, Dean Valli, Barron Miles and Paul McCallum — have signed on as counsellors for the debut of the Down Set Hut football camp, scheduled for Saturday at Minoru Park in Richmond. The youth camp is for kids 7-15, about the same age Singh was when he first thought up the idea.
“I’ve always wanted to do one,” Singh said. “Since I started playing football, I thought it would be cool to have my own camp and have a full, fun day centred around football.”
Not only has Singh lined up CFLers and members of the UBC and SFU football teams as instructors, but the budding entrepreneur has recruited a number of corporate sponsors for the event, which is being run in support of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver. The pre-registration fee of $75 includes a camp T-shirt, water bottle and lunch. The fee for same-day registration is $85. Sign-in starts at 9 a.m., with the camp kickoff scheduled for 10 a.m.
Singh, 33, grew up in Richmond and served a three-year term on the Richmond School Board. He did not seek re-election last November.
After being released by the Lions, he spent the 2007 season with the Calgary Stampeders before hinting at retirement. The Stampeders figured he was serious and decided to select Dimitri Tsoumpas and Jesse Newman in the 2008 CFL draft. Both rookies became starting guards on the Stampeders’ Grey Cup champion team last year.
Singh later caught on with the Blue Bombers for the final seven games in ’07, but when the new administration in Winnipeg decided to re-negotiate his contract this year he wanted no part of it.
“Not only did they want me to take a pay cut, but they weren’t going to honour my camp bonus [$20,000 for passing the training camp physical],” Singh said. “I’m not going to go to the middle of nowhere to play for potatoes. I don’t think I’m officially retired, but I have no team to report to. If the right situation came up. I would definitely look into it.”
In the meantime, Singh has more time to devote to his sports camp, other business ventures and his three children.
“When you’re young, you’re able to move around,” he says. “At this stage of the game, it’s not worth missing my family for six months.”
