By Herb Zurkowski / Montreal Gazette During Grey Cup weekend last November, a pair of Vancouver natives - Brody Mc-Knight and Sean Whyte - got together for a drink in their native city. McKnight, being the rookie, paid. "It wasn't awkward. We were very professional," Mc-Knight said from Missoula, Mont. This June, the two could be competing for the same kicking position with the Alouettes at training camp - that is, provided McKnight isn't selected in this year's NFL draft, which begins Thursday night in New York, continuing Friday and Saturday. If McKnight isn't drafted, he's giving himself no more…

The Canadian Press When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats broke training camp, one of the toughest decisions head coach Marcel Bellefeuille faced was who'd be his kicker. Americans Justin Medlock and Eric Wilbur launched a fierce battle for the job: Medlock was the better kicker while Wilbur excelled as a punter. But with CFL teams only allowed to keep 46 players on the active roster, the Ticats felt they couldn't carry both so they opted to keep Medlock. The former UCLA star hasn't disappointed. As expected, Medlock was one of the CFL's top kickers, converting 49-of-55 field goals (89.1 per cent) and…

Lowrell Ulrich / The Province The story told at practice Wednesday about Paul McCallum after he was named a double nominee for the second straight year should serve as another example as to why the next round of balloting for the CFL Awards will be exceedingly difficult for the ageless kicker of the B.C. Lions. A voting member of the Football Reporters of Canada relayed how he was challenged by a league official last season for nominating the 41-year-old as the team's most outstanding player because, well, he's a kicker. In that context, McCallum was only nominated as top Canadian…

Kevin Mitchell / The Star Phoenix Doug Humbert admits to feeling a little frustrated by the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ three-legged kicking game. Humbert, the Huskies’ special-teams coach, has watched Stephen McDonald, Denton Kolodzinski and Cole Samson move in and out of the lineup in what’s turned into a kicking carousel. He says it’s almost time to make a decision, and that will likely come after Friday’s home game against the British Columbia Thunderbirds. “We owe it to the kickers, and to the rest of the guys on special-teams,” Humbert said prior to Wednesday’s practice. “We need to establish somebody…

Ian Hamilton / Regina Leader-Post Members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders' special teams appear to have found their happy place. "(Craig) Dickenson has come in and done a good job of keeping us calm," special-teams captain Mike McCullough said Saturday in reference to the man who was hired in the CFL off-season to replace the departed Jim Daley as the Roughriders' special-teams co-ordinator. "It seemed like in the last couple of years, we were just too erratic and started panicking. (The Toronto Argonauts) got us at the start of the game - I still don't know really what happened, to tell…

Jamie Nye / CKOM 650 Radio While Craig Butler gets all the headlines, there is another rookie having a significant impact on the Roughriders. kicker Christopher Milo has impressed in his first season with Saskatchewan, especially with his punting. Milo ranks third in net punting (the difference between the distance the punt travels and the yardage on the oppositions return). It's a stat that often gets overlooked by the average punting distance. "He's doing a heck of job by putting it where we want it so that we feel comfortable that we can be aggressive in our coverage," says Special…

By Bill Lankhof / Toronto Sun HAMILTON - Kevin Scott may not be the loneliest Tiger-Cat. But to suggest he is a solitary man in a team game would be a mere stone’s throw from reality. “I’m not sure if it’s the loneliest (profession) but it’s definitely a specialized position and there aren’t a lot of guys in the league who can do it,” Hamilton’s long snapper said Thursday, after another two-hour workout spent mostly apart from his teammates. As coach Marcel Bellefeuille worked with the offence and defence at Ivor Wynne Stadium, Scott fired balls back between his legs off a…

Winnipeg Sun Brad Mikoluff doesn’t look like a kicker, but looks can be deceiving. The Kildonan East Grade 12 student is 5-foot-10 and 256 pounds. He’s big enough to play on the offensive line in high school, like he did on Saturday at the annual Senior Bowl, but it’s his foot that is taking him to the next level. “That’s one thing I really enjoy doing,” said Mikoluff, who has attended kicking camps in the U.S. to hone his skills. He put those investments to good use on Saturday at East Side Eagles Field, booting a pair of field goals…

By GREGG DRINNAN / Daily News Sports Editor When the CFL’s B.C. Lions open their rookie camp at Hillside Stadium on  Thursday, Aaron Smit plans on playing the role of sponge. Yes, he wants to soak it all in and then some. After all, how many athletes, with one season — ONE SEASON! — of playing their sport under their belts, get invited to a professional team’s training camp? “I started . . . last year was my first year playing,” says Smit, an 18-year-old who was born and raised in Kamloops and attended St. Ann’s. A soccer player since…

Herb Zurkowsky / Montreal Gazette Sandro DeAngelis tried going home, signing with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as a free agent following five stellar seasons at Calgary. That experiment seems to have failed, and DeAngelis was released last Tuesday, less than two weeks before the start of training camp. But on Sunday, as first reported by montrealgazette. com, the 30-year-old nonimport kicker was signed by the Alouettes for two seasons. And now, when veterans report to training camp at Bishop's University this Saturday, the team's kicking situation suddenly has become an intriguing battle. "I unpacked from a crosscountry move. I balanced home…