Dealing mentally with injuries is one of the biggest challenges in sports. The Alouettes have found an original way to do it.
At the Sparrows, we don’t attach the title of injured to those who are unable to play. “We say they are in the hangar,” explains marauder Marc-Antoine Dequoy. We brought this concept to those we don’t see, who are on the practice squad.”
The team refers to Hangar 6, which served as the base for the 425e Canadian Air Force squadron. Squadron nicknamed the Alouettes, from which the team takes its name.
Dequoy himself has left the hangar and will play in the next match. Several of his teammates do not have his chance.
The special teams are well represented in the infirmary. They include Tyrell Richards, Régis Cibasu, Frédéric Chagnon. Receiver Kaion Julien-Grant will miss several weeks of activity due to a shoulder injury. Canadian receiver Nate Behar was hired to replace him.
A third of the way through the season, the Alouettes have already used 70 different players. The final straw was announced Wednesday: starting quarterback Cody Fajardo will miss six weeks of action.
“He’s going to do everything humanly possible to get back sooner,” coach Jason Maas said Thursday at Olympic Stadium. “I know Cody, I know he’s going to work harder than anybody.”
The Alouettes will at least be able to count on the returns of defensive players Marc-Antoine Dequoy and Wesley Sutton. It is backup quarterback Caleb Evans who will get the start at Percival-Molson Stadium on Thursday.
” [Les blessures] are common in football. That’s why it’s important to have depth, and we have it with Caleb and Davis Alexander,” Marc-Antoine Dequoy encouraged himself.
The opportunity to shine
Chance does things strangely. Last year, Caleb Evans played two games in relief of Cody Fajardo. The first, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a team he will face again on Thursday.
The Als won 41-12. The 26-year-old Texan completed 8 of 13 passes for 149 yards.
“It’s crazy,” Evans said. “You can’t compare situations 100 percent because the players, the coaches are different, but I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Quarterback Caleb Evans (5) will get the start for the Alouettes on Thursday night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
When Evans enters a game, it’s often to make a sneak, replace an injured player or a struggling quarterback. This time, he took two weeks to prepare for the matchup, an unusual stroke of luck for him.
“It’s not the same when you’re there to save the day, but he proved that he’s capable of winning for us,” said Marc-Antoine Dequoy.
Evans has used the week to take up more space in the locker room, so his “teammates can hear his voice more.” Whether he likes it or not, the next few games will represent a huge chance to prove he can be a starter.
“I try not to think long term. You can always think about what’s going to happen in a year, or ten years, but you have to take baby steps to start. That’s what I focus on, and if I do it right, I think everything will fall into place,” he predicts.
“People don’t realize how young he is,” Jason Maas added. “Sometimes it’s good to sit back and analyze the game. It’s not a bad thing that he’s a backup. I consider all backups to be starters in waiting. He just hasn’t had the opportunity to be one yet.”
Neck and neck
The Alouettes, like the Roughriders, have a 5-1 record. The Saskatchewanians must also deal with the loss of their starting quarterback, Trevor Harris. Shea Patterson is taking over for him. He will play a fourth consecutive game.
“It’s going to be good football, a lot of back-and-forth, big tackles,” Evans predicted. “It’s going to come down to one or two sequences, as it always does. We’re just going to have to find a way to get the edge.”
The Alouettes suffered their first defeat of the season in the last game. They then lost against the Toronto Argonauts, by a score of 37-18. The team’s latest setbacks are far from worrying Marc-Antoine Dequoy. The Quebecer recalls that his team suffered four consecutive losses last year, before winning eight games in a row and flying away with the Grey Cup.
“In these four defeats, there was not a moment where there was finger-pointing, where we fell back,” he recalls. Internally, we still have confidence and we will continue to keep it.”
“We went through a loss, we learned, corrected things, had the chance to train. We feel like we’ll be better this week. Those are our expectations: we have standards here with the Alouettes, and we’re going to reach them,” concluded Jason Maas.