Brandon’s Treloar gets his kicks with CFLers

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This article was published 12/05/2012 (5031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s Keegan Treloar didn’t just hit the gym this off-season to train for his second CIS season as the Concordia University Stingers football team’s kicker and punter.

While he has put on 30 pounds from lifting weights, the 19-year-old Vincent Massey graduate also spent a few weeks training with professional CFL kickers. Concordia has a domed field that allowed Treloar to continue kicking all winter and he was joined by Luca Congi of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Rene Paredes of the Calgary Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers punter Mike Renaud for a couple weeks.

Treloar took full advantage of his time with the three CFL players by picking up mental and mechanical tips from them.

“It’s pretty incredible to see and you can judge yourself from what they give you,” said Treloar, who’s now back in Brandon for the summer. “You can see what they’re doing right and what they might not be doing right. Everyone has their own kicking style and little things … Talking with some of the CFL guys I kicked with, they gave me quite a few tips in the mental side of it. Kicking is a pretty mental game. It’s a lot like golf, so you have to have your head on right to kick it straight.”

Treloar also changed his stance in the off-season. His head coach, Gerry McGrath, brought in a high-tech system with six slow-motion cameras to dissect Treloar’s kicking mechanics. The 6-foot-1, 194-pound kicker feels like he improved immensely and hopes to improve on his rookie season in which he went 12-for-21 on field goal attempts and averaged 34.6 yards per punt.

Now that he’s back home, Treloar continues to work out at the gym and kicks the ball a few times every week. He can’t wait to return to Quebec and for the next football season to start.

“It was a good year this year and I think it will only get better from that,” he said. “We have a good, solid team next year and it’s looking good. We got our schedule and we only play Laval once, which is a blessing in the Quebec conference.”

T.J. Simpson, a Massey graduate who’s playing for the Windsor Lancers, is also back in Brandon this summer. He’s on a strict training program where he’s lifting weights four days a week and running on two other days.

Simpson didn’t get a lot of playing time at linebacker last season, recording four defensive tackles, but he’s hoping to crack the starting lineup in the fall as a fourth-year player. However, the 6-foot-1 business major has to compete with a pair of fifth-year linebackers for a starting spot, with the Lancers using a modified defensive back as a their third linebacker.

“I’d like to fight for a starting spot, but we still have two fifth-year kids in starting roles right now, so it will be tough,” he said. “My goal is to win with the team because we finally have a winning team and we have a good chance this year.”

Meanwhile, Crocus Plains alumnus Landon Rice is living in Winnipeg this summer and preparing for his fifth and final season on the Manitoba Bisons’ offensive line.

Two other offensive linemen from Brandon will join Rice next season. Sean Simpson, who’s graduating from Crocus Plains in June, and Nevin Gamblin — a Neelin alumnus who spent the past two seasons playing junior football with the Winnipeg Rifles — have both committed to the Bisons.

» cjaster@brandonsun.com