Guelph Mercury writes on the Lang hiring.

From Rob Massey: The accidental coach

Greg Layson: I'll buy that coach for a dollar.

Gryphons tab Stu Lang to be new head football coach: Former receivers coach takes reins, bringing athletic and professional experience

“Stu Lang is the right man, at the right time for Guelph. We are very fortunate to have him lead our program to accomplish the goal of competing for a conference and national championship.” – Tom Kendall, athletic director.

photo credit: Gryphons Athletics

After a dedicated search to find their next head coach, the Guelph Gryphons football team has found their new leader.

Link to Guelph football press conference

As you probably know by now, the Guelph Gryphons are holding a press conference today, (Tues. March 30) at 2pm ET to introduce their new head football coach. At this time, it is expected that Stu Lang will be taking the reins from the recently-departed Kyle Walters. Athletic director Tom Kendall will be hosting the press conference from the Gryphon Lounge in the W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre on campus.


Click HERE to go directly to the video link for today's presser, hosted by SSN Canada

Guelph Press Conference: Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2-3pm EST

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Mar. 30) from 2-3pm EST, there will be a press conference at the University of Guelph to introduce the new head football coach. The press conference will take place in the Gryphon Lounge in the Athletic Centre on campus and be broadcasted on www.ssncanada.ca. It is expected that Stu Lang will be introduced as the next head coach of Gryphons football, replacing Kyle Walters who has taken the job of special teams coordinator with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL.

Sources: Stu Lang will be next Gryphons head football coach

Exciting news out of the University of Guelph!

Multiple sources surrounding the team have indicated that current Guelph Gryphons receivers coach and former CFLer Stu Lang will be named the new head coach of the team. Greg Layson reported that Lang was interviewed for the position last week. His write-up can be found HERE. As Layson indicated, money is not a critical factor in Lang's desire to coach this team as he is already financially secure given his family's labeling business, CCL Industries. Lang's Gryphon bio can be found HERE. Players were impressed with his dedication and commitment as a coach this year.

Lang had a successful CIS and CFL career as a receiver with the Queen's Gaels and Edmonton Eskimos, winning one Yates Cup and five Grey Cups in the 70s and 80s. Last year was his first year coaching Gryphons receivers, a group that included Jedd Gardner, Dave Harrison, Jamie Shaw and budding rookie Dillon Dimitroff, the nephew of Atlanta Falcons GM Tom Dimitroff Jr.

Athletic Director Tom Kendall has not yet confirmed that Lang will be named head coach, but did indicate that there should be a press conference announcing a hiring sometime next week--likely Thursday.

Today on Gryphtalk...

We were joined by Andrew Revie, the fourth-year middle from the Gryphon men's volleyball team, as well as Samantha Smith-Moskal, the chair of the Guelph Relay for Life, taking place on Saturday, March 27 at 7pm in the Gryphon Dome. Great interview with Samantha...check it out if you have a chance. Download link is at the bottom, CLICK HERE

photo credit: Gryphons Athletics

Honouring yet another outstanding group of Gryphons

At the end of the Fall semester, the first edition of the ‘Golden Mikes’ were handed out to some very deserving Gryphons, recognizing their accomplishments in athletics from September through December. With the varsity season now complete and the department’s Intercollegiate Awards Banquet coming up on April 8, Speak into the Mike will take this time to hand out the second series of ‘Golden Mikes,’ along with a few honourable mentions.

Pucks clash with snorkels in 'breathtaking' sport

"From personal experience and based on what others have told me, it takes about a month [of playing] to get your breath hold up to where you can dive to the bottom of a pool, do something useful with the puck and then go back up to breathe.” – Brittany Haughton, president of the Guelph Underwater Hockey club.

photo: Brittany Haughton

Sports synergies are not at all uncommon, whereby two activities are combined to form a completely new sport altogether.

Frisbee golf comes to mind, as does the ever-popular phys-ed pastime from grade school: soccer baseball.

And, in Guelph, another sports synergy has captured the interest of many students: underwater hockey.

Gryphtalk recognizes CIS track and field champions, ambitious students

Finally getting caught up on the blog after a busy week. The varsity season is officially over now but for the Guelph Gryphons men's track and field team, it finished with a bang, as the guys brought home their second CIS title in the past three years. We recapped the results off the top of the show and were then joined by head coach and men's coach of the year, Dave Scott-Thomas to go over some details.

We then were joined by Ian Whatley and Ben Love, a pair of U of G students who are cycling across Canada to raise money for Alzheimer's this summer--great story and a follow-up to the article that I wrote on these guys a couple of weeks ago. Their website can be found at www.acrossthenation.ca. Check it out. They're doing a great job.

For the link to the audio host site for Friday's show, click HERE. As usual, the download button is at the bottom and it's an mp3 file that will play on just about anything short of a tape deck.

photo credit: Ian Whatley & Ben Love

Enjoy!

Running culture equally unique as it is successful

It was last Saturday night, when my BlackBerry went into the all-too-familiar vibrating convulsions. I was waiting for one email in particular: the press release with the final results from the CIS track and field championships. The Gryphon men had gone into the final day of the weekend-long set of events with a slim lead over their longtime rivals, the Windsor Lancers.


As expected, the mobile alert contained the news that I was hoping for, headlined by “Gryphon Men Win National Track Championship.” Chalk up another national title for the Gryphons unbelievable running programs, this one decided by a mere one point in the final race of the weekend.

Gryphon excellence at CFL E-Camp: Guelph sends largest single-school contingent to Toronto for three-day testing

With Canadian Football League (CFL) scouts and coaches hoping to get a glimpse of the league’s incoming homegrown talent, six members of the Guelph Gryphons put their skills on display at the annual Evaluation Camp on the weekend.

The Gryphons football program sent more athletes to the three-day event than any other university, proving that despite their underachieving 3-5 record during the regular season, the individual talent on the team is among the nation’s best.

Gryphtalk honours International Women's Day

Monday, March 8 was International Women's Day and we devoted the features portion of our program on Friday to a discussion of women's sports in and around the University of Guelph.

Click HERE to go to the sendspace host site. The download link is at the bottom of the page. Thanks, as always, for listening!

Debriefing the NIC

Due to crappy weather and our radio show being a little delayed yesterday (I’ll post the audio later today), I showed up to the National Invitational Combine (NIC) at the U of T Varsity Centre around 3pm yesterday, about an hour after drills got going.

For those that don’t know, the NIC is a private combine for university students – almost exclusively Canadian – to show their stuff to the same CFL scouts, coaches, GMs who will be patrolling the same field tomorrow for the CFL’s formal Evaluation Camp. The event was run by TSN analyst and former CFL player Duane Forde and Mike Gough, both from Canadian Football Scouting (www.canadianfootballscouting.com).

Ineffective officiating casts dark shadow over hockey finals

First, let me make one thing clear: I am not usually a proponent of criticizing officiating. In any sport.

If an umpire has a wide strike zone, expand your batting eye. If a referee has a tendency for calling soft fouls in the paint, ease up on the contact under the basket. If skating judges prefer jumps to footwork, you’d better get some more air.

Because, although there are rules in every sport, officiating remains highly subjective. It is what it is, and human error is inevitable in every case.

This week on Gryphtalk...

Today's show is now uploaded on sendspace so feel free to check it out. The download link is at the bottom of the page and it's an mp3 file that will play in just about all media players.

Gryphtalk from Friday, March 5

Track and field competition tightens as Gryphons struggle (by their standards) at OUA Championships

“The track and field league is very strong right now. It’s way better now, top to bottom, than it was ten, or even five years ago.” – Gryphons head coach Dave Scott-Thomas, following the team’s silver and bronze medal finishes at York.

Gryphons drop Game 1 in OUA Finals

The Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team fell 2-0 to the Laurier Golden Hawks in tonight's opening game of the best-of-three OUA Finals between the two teams. Laurier continues to be undefeated in regulation this season while it was the Gryphons first playoff defeat.

Liz Knox, the league's top goaltender, made 29 saves to nail down the shutout and Caitlin Muirhead and Paula Lagamba tallied for the 'Hawks.

Laurier comes into this series as the odds-on favourite to repeat as OUA champs for the 7th consecutive year. Remember, these two teams went the distance in the OUA Finals last year, with Guelph winning Game 1 before Laurier bounced back with wins in Games 2 and 3 to take the series, and the league title.

The series shifts back to Guelph on Saturday afternoon at the Gryphon Centre on the University of Guelph campus. I, along with Greg Layson will have the call live on the Streaming Sports Network, starting at 2pm as the Gryphons will be fighting to keep their season alive.

Nothing but praise for Walters' decision

In football, arguably more so than any other sport, it is the head coach that drives the team.

The players execute, but the coach implements.

Whether it’s recruiting, planning, motivating, adjusting, or simply, providing the foundation for success, more is demanded of head football coaches than any other boss in any other sport.

Which is what makes Kyle Walters’ decision to move from Gryphons head coach to special teams coordinator for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL that much more significant.