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Player Diaries have arrived Gilles Colon is the Gaiters most dangerous weapon. On the field the athletic superstar has gotten the attention of defensive coordinators everywhere, constantly receiving double teams and still managing to beat up on opposing teams. Last week against the Stingers, Colon couldn't be stopped, torching a blistering 105 yards on 6 receptions and coming away with over 250 all purpose yards. Colon, from Annandale, Virginia, came to Bishop's in 1999 never having played a down of football. Today he is a star on and off the field, and this season has allowed Gaiter fans to get that much closer to the team, by providing a season diary during the 2003 campaign. Here is the first installment of what should be an interesting series. Football Diaries by Gilles Colon It’s that time of year again. Time to fit up the equipment, grab the playbook, and get physically and mentally prepared. Time to piece together months of hard work during the off-season to entertain the crazed purple and white Gaiter fans. But most importantly time to continue a Gaiter Tradition. Training camp is a fairly stressful time
of year. To stay sane, athletes must somehow slightly get their minds off
of football. So what better way to do that then to play a little Madden
NFL 2004 on Playstation 2. When we are not on the field, or in a meeting,
or studying our playbooks in our free time, the boys challenge each other
to a “friendly” game of Madden. Actually, it is so serious that soon we
have another full-team tournament coming up. These activities serve to
strengthen team unity, although this year I am out to convincingly avenge
last year’s first-round, lopsided loss to Pat Nadeau. But just as
competitive on the field as in Madden, if you were to walk into training
camp and watch a day of practice, the most common phrase you would hear
would be “Finish It”. This is a phrase commonly used by Coach Larry
Legault, who instills in us every practice that we should finish every
drill to the best of our ability, and understand that discipline will
carry us through game day.
The team seems to be the strongest it has been in my four years thus far. The closest comparison would be the team that we had in 2000 when we lost to Laval by one point in the last regular season game, and then by less than one score in the playoffs. That team included guys that we looked up to, such as: Matt Robichaud, Dave Stipe, Bill Wright, Ben Ouimet, Andrew Carter, and Mike Wilson, who all had stints with the CFL. Now the Gaiters have different stars such as: Sylvain “the franchise” Desrochers, Andre Bynoe, JF Roy, PO Proulx, and Dave Delaby (just to name a few). So, what happened in our first game? Well, last Saturday vs. Concordia was a little nerve racking. We weren’t prepared for some of the schemes they brought. This past week of practice was intense and we covered any possible scheme that future opponents could throw our way. We are all confident as a team of our ability to beat any team in the country (including St. Mary’s, who we will face on September 20th ). The most important thing that we have learned so far is that “football is fun”. We don’t get paid to play and are not in danger of losing our jobs by getting cut. This is one thing that I really finally started to understand at the beginning of last year. Since then good results have come for me. If you don’t understand what I mean, it is pretty much just this—You go out for every practice and you give it everything you’ve got. You prepare yourself mentally and physically throughout the week so that on Saturday you suit up for the game and simply “Just Do It” – You have fun!! Saturday September 6th is already passed, but come this Saturday we will step out on the field, have fun and give it everything that we’ve got. Then at around 4 pm each Saturday we can come away with the thing that we and our fans want most in common, - the “W”.
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