{"id":366696,"date":"2025-12-24T21:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366696\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:07:18","slug":"game-preview-preseason-2-wpg-at-sask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366696\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Preseason #2 – WPG at SASK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kickoff: Friday, May 30th, 8 p.m. CDT; Mosaic Stadium, Regina
TV\/Streaming:\u00a0CFL+<\/a>
Radio:\u00a0680 CJOB<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scene Setter<\/p>\n

Micah Vanterpool is a towering man, officially standing at 6-6 and \u2014 depending on the calories he burned during Winnipeg Blue Bombers practice and how high the vittles were stacked on his plate before and afterward \u2014 unofficially tipping the scales at 315 pounds.<\/p>\n

Imagine then, the scene when the 26-year-old walked into his Grade 3 class at Jarman Elementary School in Tulsa, OK as a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been teaching the last two offseasons,\u201d said the affable Vanterpool in a chat this week with bluebombers.com. \u201cAt first, I was subbing, and you\u2019d hear the kids be, \u2018Oh, we\u2019ve got a sub. We\u2019ve got a pushover.\u2019 Then I walk in and it\u2019s, \u2018Oh\u2026 we\u2019re going to have to listen today.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanterpool\u2019s face then widened into a smile and he followed that with a hearty and contagious baritone laugh. And if you\u2019ve taken in even just one Blue Bombers practice over the last two years that is likely the first thing you might notice about the versatile guard\/tackle \u2014 at least, once he took his helmet off after consistently owning his patch of grass along the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

Yes, take an informal poll in Bomberland for a list of who stood out in training camp and you\u2019ll get a wide variety of names. But guaranteed Vanterpool\u2019s name is not only on every list, it\u2019s likely in the Top 3. Not that he\u2019ll be thumping his chest and boasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to get too high or too low,\u201d he said with a shrug. \u201cI just come in every day and bring my lunchpail and do my 1\/12th. I don\u2019t focus on the ebbs and flows, but just do my work every day. I will say it\u2019s night and day from a year ago for me. Being around the facility you understand where things are \u2014 little things like, \u2018Where we go to get lunch? Where do we go for treatment? Who do I talk to for this or that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year there\u2019s a sense of comfortability for me and once you\u2019re comfortable in your surroundings then you get more comfortable with the playbook, more comfortable with just being around the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vanterpool has done exactly what he was supposed to do in camp and leading up to Friday\u2019s final preseason contest in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He\u2019s played the tackle and guard spots and forced his way into the conversation at both, so much so that he\u2019s helped build the narrative by some in the building the club should consider playing three Americans along the offensive line along with left tackle Stanley Bryant, whoever mans the right flank \u2014 either Eric Lofton or Kendall Randolph \u2014 alongside Canadians Chris Kolankowski and Pat Neufeld. FYI, he\u2019ll start at the left guard spot Friday against the Riders.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the University of Hawaii product \u2014 who came to Winnipeg last year after playing with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL in 2023 \u2014 is a O-line candidate both in the here and now and viewed as a potential long-term piece on a line that last season started four players in their 30s in Bryant (39), Kolankowski (33), Neufeld (36) and Lofton (32).<\/p>\n

Vanterpool dressed for just two games in 2024, but just kept grinding every single day. And instead of moping about limited playing time, he embraced the chance to learn on the job. Again, that\u2019s part of the man\u2019s demeanour, where there is a silver lining in every situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was for sure a learning curve last year,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand that the CFL is a different game. It was a year where it was about, \u2018How much better can I be?\u2019 I didn\u2019t think of it as a negative experience at all. Instead, it was, \u2018How much can I grow so that when I get an opportunity next year, I can put my best foot forward?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play a little kid\u2019s game. It\u2019s kinda crazy. I\u2019m a teacher in the offseason. I always tell guys, \u2018We\u2019re playing football. We could be in a room of screaming third graders.\u2019 There was a time after college when I wasn\u2019t playing, and I thought I was going into that grand vast beyond after football. Then I went to some camps, and you do the measuring stick thing against other players and then you go, \u2018OK, I might be able to do this.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why every day is a blessing, man, because you never know when it might be your last down of football. I thought I had my last down in college. I\u2019m happy I came up here. I just love being out here competing and playing freely and not being afraid of the mistakes you might make. It\u2019s so much fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing\u2026 those little kids have taught me so much more than I could teach them. They reminded me that it\u2019s OK sometimes to make mistakes. We play a high-pressure job, and you want to your best every single snap. But sometimes bad things are going to happen and it\u2019s how you respond to them. That was my takeaway from teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NOTABLE: The Blue Bombers are leaving 13 regulars in Winnipeg for the final preseason game in DEs Willie Jefferson and James Vaughters, DT Jake Thomas, LBs Tony Jones, Kyrie Wilson and Shayne Gauthier, defensive backs Deatrick Nichols, Evan Holm, Terrell Bonds and Michael Griffin II, running back Brady Oliveira and right tackle Eric Lofton.<\/p>\n

All four quarterbacks will dress, with Chris Streveler listed as the starter and Zach Collaros, Chase Artopoeus and Terry Wilson listed behind him in that order.<\/p>\n

QUOTABLE:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to play football, man. And going through what I went through last year, you appreciate (the games) that much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you get to strap it up and go play a game, that\u2019s an opportunity you don\u2019t want to slip by.\u201d \u2014 Chris Streveler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kickoff: Friday, May 30th, 8 p.m. CDT; Mosaic Stadium, ReginaTV\/Streaming:\u00a0CFL+Radio:\u00a0680 CJOB Scene Setter Micah Vanterpool is a towering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-366696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}