While the Montreal Alouettes won the Gray Cup on Sunday night, the Université de Montréal Carabins coaches worked hard to find flaws in the UBC Thunderbirds’ play.
“The coaches, we have a lot of work to do at the moment,” said Marco Iadeluca. We arrived early and left the office late. We still managed to see small parts of the Gray Cup game.”
The Carabins head coach and his staff are preparing for the 58th Vanier Cup, taking place next Saturday in Kingston, Ontario. The Blues will look to secure their second Canadian championship in their history.
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When the Carabins last triumphed in 2014, Iadeluca was the club’s offensive coordinator. Danny Maciocia was the head coach, while Byron Archambault and Pierre-Olivier Breault wore helmets and shoulder pads.
Today, these three men are respectively the general manager, the assistant head coach and the coach responsible for the physical conditioning of the “Als”.
Courtesy of Montreal Carbines
A victory for “everyone”
The connections between the Carabins and the Alouettes don’t end there. Anthony Calvillo (offensive coordinator), Noel Thorpe (defensive coordinator), Pier-Yves Lavergne (director of national scouting), Billy Jean (assistant video coordinator), Zacary Alexis (assistant video coordinator) and David Deschamps (equipment manager) have all coached or been at some point Blues player.
Footballers Marc-Antoine Dequoy, Louis-Philippe Bourassa, Frédéric Chagnon, Régis Cibasu, Tysen-Otis Copeland and Pier-Olivier Lestage are also UdeM products.
“I took the time to send them all a congratulatory text message,” Iadeluca said. It’s really cool to see them win. There are a lot of former Carabins and Quebecers on this team. This is further proof that football is doing well in Quebec. A victory for the Alouettes is good for everyone!”
Dominick Gravel/QMI Agency
A first in 43 years?
Should the Carabins win against the Thunderbirds, it would be the first time since 1980 that the Vanier and Gray Cups would be won by two teams from the same city.
This honor was bestowed on Edmonton last time, thanks to the Eskimos Golden Bears and the University of Alberta.
“The Alouettes’ victory doesn’t change our motivation,” said Iadeluca. We have prepared, worked and sweated for a year to be ready for this moment. But when you see the alumni and the local team winning, the desire and urge to win a championship becomes even greater.”
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