Blake Nill and the Calgary Dinos steered clear of Huskies Stadium after touching down in Halifax yesterday.
The Dinos, who flew in to Halifax in the wee hours of the morning, ditched last night’s 6:30 p.m. practice time on the Saint Mary’s campus and moved — without notifying media — to Mainland Common in Clayton Park.
With the hype around the Uteck Bowl, Nill, the Dinos’ head coach, wanted his team to have room to breath.
“I told (Saint Mary’s officials) I was looking at a Plan B and I was able to get this right away,” said Nill, as his players boarded the team bus after the chilly two-hour session. “It’s good that we have one more day where we can work on a few things without having the media and school population around.”
It’s going to be tough for the Dinos to avoid the spotlight going forward. It’s Nill’s first game back in Halifax since he resigned as head coach of the Huskies in 2006 after leading the program to six conference titles and two Vanier Cups.
It will also mark a homecoming of sorts for Dinos quarterback Erik Glavic, who won a Hec Crighton award as the nation’s most outstanding player at Saint Mary’s in 2007.
Nill said his club is just trying to get comfortable here, particularly with the three-hour time-zone difference.
“It’s tough on the kids,” said Nill, whose Dinos boarded their plane in Calgary at 2 a.m. Atlantic time. “They’ve been up a long time. They’re just trying to get adjusted.”
Nill and Glavic are scheduled to be at Saint Mary’s at noon today for a press conference at The Tower.
