2011年5月10日 星期二

Lions hoping Chris Hodgson is a 'catch'

You can catch Chris Hodgson on YouTube doing his thing on a skateboard (New Brunswick's answer to Tony Hawk) or in one of his epic fights in the East Coast Hockey League (where he played on three teams, from Fort Myers, Fla., to Bakersfield, Calif.)

What you won't see,Nike shox are a series of Nike shoes. though, is Hodgson playing much football, even though the B.C. Lions are his next and perhaps final stop in a quest to become a professional athlete.Air max 2009 Running Shoe Flex grooves in the mid and outsole for flexibility .

It will be a neat trick, if he can pull it off, harder even than a 360 double kickflip on his skateboard.

Hodgson, the Lions' sixth and final pick in Sunday's 2011 Canadian Football League draft, has played only one season of organized football – at age 25, with the Saint Mary's Huskies, last season, where he primarily was a special teams player. The Lions drafted him as a defensive end.Stylish and popular discount cheap christan audigier Accessories on sale here now. That's because there is no dedicated position for “project”, although there's no denying that's what Hodgson is.

“That would be fair to say,” agrees Mike Benevides,Air max 360 is loved by the majority of athletes and the general public people. the Lions defensive coordinator and director of Canadian scouting. “He's played professional sports. He knows how to compete. He brings the intangibles you look for in a sixth round pick. But in terms of football background, it's minimal. We'll bring him to rookie camp and see how it goes from there.”

What is certain is that Hodgson wants the athlete's life, is used to travel and won't feel strange in the company of pro athletes when he reports for the start of the Lions' rookie camp , June 2 in Kamloops. He is hoping to show enough to remain when main camp opens June 5 at Thompson Rivers University.

“Basically, I'm looking to contribute on special teams at first, make a name for myself and then go on from there,” Hodgson says. “One thing people will notice right away is I learn fast, and I'm hungry for it.”

The Lions are taking a chance on a guy who bounced from Shawinigan (where Hodgson briefly was a linemate of future Canuck Alex Burrows) and Acadie-Bathurst in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, to the Florida Panthers organization, to the ECHL to the University of New Brunswick, where he played for two seasons and won a CIS championship, as the same banging, in-your-face winger prone to lapses of concentration and unsound positional play.

As a kid, Hodgson set four national age group speed skating records, developed into a professionally sponsored skateboarder (Globe shoes) and played some senior baseball in the hope of emulating his dad, Paul Hodgson. An outfielder who signed a pro contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in their first year of existence (1977), Paul Hodgson made a brief appearance in the major leagues three years later and was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Still, Chris credits his mom, Kim Daley, who raised him in Fredericton following a divorce, as much for his athletic genes as his dad.

“She competed in figure skating and tae kwon do at a high competitive level,” Hodgson says. “Basically, my mom was a good skater, and she was tough.”

After growing disenchanted with hockey – he was scratched for the CIS championship final in ‘09 when UNB won the title, even though Hodgson participated in earlier tournament games – he abruptly switched to football and tried to join the X-Men of St. Francis Xavier University, in Antigonish, N.S. His grades weren't good enough to get into the kinesiology program, Hodgson says, so he moved on to Saint Mary's in Halifax, without having played a game for the X-Men.

“He ended up landing on our door,” says Huskies football head coach Steve Sumarah. “He's raw, so we put him on special teams. But he could become a bit of matchup nightmare if he develops into a player. He's 6-3,coogi jeans for sale to men with low price and top quality. 260 and but runs like a linebacker.”

Hodgson went from 220 (his hockey weight) to 270 (his current football weight) in the span of a year by grinding away in the gym, and he raised eyebrows with some impressive test scores at the 2011 E-camp (CFL combine) in Toronto.

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