Live from training camp 2007!

As some of you may know, my other job is as the web and publications editor for the Montreal Alouettes football club. In fact, getting to report about local sports on one end and work in the sports industry on the other brings me great professional pleasure.

St-Jean is truly an interesting little town.

I’m an admitted big city snob, and my knuckles have been rapped for my pro-Montreal, anti-small town attitude. One of my favourite moments was when I quipped to my boss that there are more pretty girls on Sherbrooke than in Sherbrooke and he looked at me as is to say, “Can it, Champ.”

St. Jean, however, is a different story.

Okay, I don’t love being away from Montreal for close to three weeks. And I certainly don’t love being away from my bed and the people I love for that long.

But once we’re here, it’s just a lot of fun.

I guess it’s not that crazy that a kid from the West End has grown up to work for a pro sports team in Montreal, but it certainly is a thrill.

Being in the same dorm as some of the most admired athletes in the city is something I appreciate every day.

Here in St. Jean, we stay at a Canadian military college on the river that has great facilities, decent dorm rooms and well, horrendous food – but lots of it.

A regular day has us out at practice in the morning, in the office most of the afternoon, and then out on the football field playing some ball ourselves in the early evening.

From there, it’s dinnertime, the players go off to their meetings, and we plug away till sometimes midnight or later.

Once the season gets rolling, it’s more of a 9-to-5 kind of day, but for now it’s sunrise to sunset football, football and some more football.

This year has been a real treat because of some of the changes we’ve had around the team

Now don’t get me wrong — I was always a Don Matthews fan, and I got along quite well with the man. But now with Jim Popp and his assistants running the entire show around here, the atmosphere is more my kind of bag.

Jim is first and foremost about the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever met when it comes to football — even more than my dad! The key is that he’s also one of the hardest working, yet laid-back people around.

That attitude has kind of permeated the team and people are a) more relaxed and b) are twice as productive.

Indeed, a promising atmosphere as we launch into the coming Canadian Football League season.