WFP: Rough road for rebuilt herd

The CIS football pre-season rankings were released on September 1, 2015 and the Manitoba Bisons are listed as the 10th ranked team in Canada. Three other Canada West teams (Calgary, UBC and Saskatchewan) are also in the top 10. Tim Campbell of the Winnipeg Free Press writes about the tough road for the Bisons as they embark on a season in the toughest conference in Canada.

“I don’t even think it’s close… there are four teams in the top 10 from Canada West, unquestionably the toughest conference in the nation this year,” Dobie said at a press availability Tuesday. “We have the toughest start in the nation. We open up against three teams ranked ahead of us, all top-10 teams.”

To get ready, Dobie said the team has modified its training camp preparations under the direction of strength and conditioning coach Matt Barr.

“This is the first year that training camp became a three-week deal instead of a two-week deal and for all the right reasons,” Dobie said. “We were able to have fewer two-a-days and even able to take a couple of days off in the middle of training camp, and that part was all him.

The Bisons are also hoping to gain an advantage thanks to a new piece of technology. New tracking sensors provide valuable data on how each athlete is performing.

It’s very high end and tracks everything the athlete does,” Dobie said. “We’ve experimented over the last year with it and it’s amazing what we get out of it.”

The measurements of collisions and a player’s velocity, in particular, have helped the team train and play more efficiently.

“We’re substituting better,” Dobie said. “We’re finding ways to warm up better. It has affected how we ran training camp. We’re trying to become more scientific about it.

“The data we’re getting is extremely valuable.”

Read the full story at winnipegfreepress.com.