Mental toughness a key for BC heading into CFL season
Posted June 26, 2011 8:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC Lions are in a positive frame of mind heading into the new season, as BC is trying to build on the success of finishing with seven wins in their last 10 games of the 2010 regular season.
The old adage is, it’s not how you start, but how you finish. Some of the returning veteran players admitted that starting the 2010 season with one win and seven losses was mentally draining. BC did make a great push to end last season, before losing a heartbreaker in overtime to Saskatchewan in the Western semi-final.
In two pre-season games the Leos out-scored Calgary and Saskatchewan by a combined score of 58-6. GM and head coach Wally Buono likes the positive mindset his players have had the last few months. “We want to be playing games and expecting to win. I think that’s the attitude you have to have to be a winning team. I think the off season and the pre-season have helped the players in developing that attitude.”
It’s not an easy opening game for the Buono bunch, as they travel to meet the two-time defending Grey Cup champions in Montreal. “If you look at them as Grey Cup champions, we are playing in their home park and they are [the] measuring sticks. Last year we were the only team to beat Montreal at home, and that’s what we expect to do on Thursday when we go there.”
The Province newspaper reports that rookie defensive lineman Chris Hodgson suffered an injured foot at practice Sunday and had to be hospitalized.
Game time on Thursday is 4:30 PDT.
