University of Guelph Gryphons quarterback Tristan Aboud got a close-up look at the on-field workings of a Canadian Football League training camp when he suited up for workouts as an intern at the Toronto Argonauts’ camp at Alumni Stadium.
“Just spending a month with professional athletes and professional coaches is just truly a blessing,” Aboud said. “To get the opportunity to better myself and then bring my knowledge back to the team and just make the team better, that's the whole goal of it.”
Named to Ontario Universities Athletics all-rookie football team last year, Aboud participated in the Argos’ camp as part of the CFL’s quarterback internship program. Each CFL team invited a quarterback from a Canadian university to participate in their training camp. He completed his internship by being on the Argos bench, not in uniform, for their preseason game at Alumni Stadium against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“The biggest surprise was really how they treated me,” Aboud said. “I went in there expecting I'm going to have to do all the dirty work. Like, I'm an intern. It's how it goes. But they treated me with so much respect and like a player and they actually gave me a couple reps and it went well. It was awesome. They showed me a lot of respect and I only have love and respect for the organization.”
Taking snaps for the team and throwing to professional running backs and receivers is a little different than doing it at the university level.
“I'll say the first three days you probably just gotta get used to the speed of the game definitely because it's faster players,” he said. “But once you get into the rhythm, you adapt. It was awesome. You quickly adapt and you get used to it.”
While the players at the Argos’ camp were bigger and faster than what he’ll face in OUA play, the camp itself was pretty much the same as the Gryphon training camp.
“Honestly, it was a very similar structure where we practice in the morning, we have lunch, then we go to meetings and dinner and more meetings at the end the day,” Aboud said. “So it was very similar.”
While practising with the older professional players could have been intimidating, Aboud didn’t find it to be that way.
“I grew up with the older generation a lot, like throwing to older guys, so I'm pretty used to being in that environment,” he said. “It just felt like I was with a bunch of older brothers.”
And he did have a bit of an advantage on the Argos as he’d played and practised at Alumni Stadium last year, got to use the locker he uses with the Gryphons and he slept in his own bed, not in residence like the other players.
“I was grateful enough just being in the comfort of my own home and my apartment off campus so it wasn’t much adaptation for me. It's a very familiar place,” he said.
Now Aboud turns his attention to the Gryphon camp that is to start in the second week of August.
“I just take all the knowledge I got here and apply it to my craft,” he said. “The coaching staff was really nice with me and the quarterbacks coach, Mike Miller, is such an unbelievable person, truly a mentor for me now in life. And he said if I ever need help with anything, send him videos of me throwing, anything I need help with even just in life, to reach out to him. It was honestly such a blessing to just be able to meet someone like this and create such a relationship like that out of this experience.”
So does Aboud plan to flood Miller with videos?
“No, I won't be bothering him much,” Aboud said. “He's busy. He's got a full-time job.”
Looking ahead to a summer of workouts getting ready for the 2024 OUA football season won’t be a different summer for Montreal native Aboud, who is to stay around town to be closer to his teammates and workouts.
“My father owns a gym, so I've been training since I've been about eight years old so it's not an unfamiliar thing for me,” he said.
One thing that will be different for Aboud and all the Gryphon returnees will be a new head coach. Ryan Sheahan, the former guy in charge, left the Gryphons to become head coach of the University of Calgary Dinos where he had been the team’s offensive coordinator before joining the Gryphons. Mark Surya has been promoted from offensive coordinator for the Gryphons to become the team’s fourth head coach since Stu Lang stepped aside after the Gryphons won the OUA championship Yates Cup in 2015. Donnavan Carter adds associate head coach responsibilities to his special teams coordinator position.
“It obviously took a moment to adapt, but I believe all our players trust in Coach Surya to lead us in the right direction,” Aboud said. “That's about it.”
One day during the Argos training camp, Aboud, Argos general manager Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons and four Argos players were among those who spoke to a gathering of elementary school players at the University of Guelph Athletics Centre. The event was originally scheduled to be held outdoors at the stadium, but rain that day moved it indoors.
“It was an awesome experience,” Aboud said. “I like to push myself, get out of my shell and work on my public speaking. I'm just very grateful I had the opportunity to do it and I look forward to having more opportunities like that.”
That part of being a high-profile athlete, if even just at the university level, is something Aboud is trying to get comfortable with.
“I wouldn't say I don't like it,” he said. “I like getting familiar with the place I'm in first and now I know how great of a place Guelph is I want to give back to the community and I already have a couple of plans in place to do that. Obviously, after the season, the upcoming season, but I'm looking very forward to it.”
As for the 2024 season, the Gryphon players are to have a simple goal after the team missed the playoffs two consecutive seasons. Guelph finished tied for the seventh and final playoff berth with the Waterloo Warriors at 3-5 last season and the Gryphons missed out on post-season play as Waterloo won the tie-breaker.
“Just winning, that's it,” Aboud said. “We had two very tough losses that we should have won and we would have had a five and three season with those two wins. So just go in and get into the playoffs. That's the first goal and then we'll take it from there.”
The Gryphons are to open their regular season with a game against the Carleton Ravens Aug. 24 at 1 p.m. at Alumni Stadium.
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