Hi Everyone! We have buzzed through the early stages of training camp and our roster is now fairly set as we begin to move towards exhibition play. Despite there being a number of new faces on this year's team we are genuinely excited by the potential and the attitude that they have shown to this point. The players that remained in Kingston all summer have shown tremendous growth and several new additions appear to be ready to fight for their opportunities to contribute early in the 2010-2011 campaign.
I will begin to slowly profile the roster in coming weeks once things are official. However, I do want to take a minute to make you aware of our early season schedule. We open our CIS exhibition season at home this year hosting Laval on October 2nd and then follow that up with another home stand versus Bishops on October 8th. Laval returns a nearly complete line-up in addition to a couple of very talented NCAA transfers and are expected to compete again this year for tops in the 'Q'. Bishops continues to evolve under coach Rod Gilpin and will be welcoming a very good young group of recruits and transfers that will add to their athleticism and growth. After that we become road warriors for a couple of weeks as we head to Saskatchewan Graham Construction Shootout where we will play Calgary, Brandon and the defending CIS champion Huskies. The following weekend we head east to McGill to play Western , UPEI and the host Redmen. Throughout those games I think it is safe to say that we will play 5 teams that will be anticipated to be in the top ten in pre-season rankings. It will be a tough stretch, however, it will certainly be a great measure as to where we are in our own process and will expose our players (particularly rookies) to the level to which we aspire to compete right away. FYI....we open our OUA season at home this year with Wilfred Laurier and Waterloo visiting the ARC on November 5th and 6th.
In alumni news....
Former alumni Iain Reid has just had his first book published and it has created quite a stir. I just purchased my copy on Tuesday and my first impression is similar to others. Fellow alumni, Mark Blackman says that his synopsis simply couldn't do it justice. The book has been extremely well received and has garnered early praises from a variety of sources. Below are a few links provided by Mark, where you can read reviews, interviews, etc. about Iain's work.
http://books.torontoist.com/2010/08/coming-soon-iain-reids-one-birds-choice/
http://www.anansi.ca/assets/catalogues/Anansi_F10_Ir.pdf Refer to pages 16-17 for a quick/funny excerpt.
It would be great to have everyone support Iain and his passion and get out and bye a copy of your own. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed. To order a copy go the link below or you can get a copy in most large book stores.
http://www.amazon.ca/One-Birds-Choice-Iain-Reid/dp/0887842437/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284241579&sr=8-1
Hope everyone is well. Talk with you again soon.
The official blog of Queen's University - Athletics and Recreation.
