DON LANDRY – Argonauts.ca Columnist
TORONTO – Sammy Tranks was right in the middle of telling me how he knocked Odell Willis on his keester, last season, when the Argos team bus started pulling out of the parking lot at Holy Trinity Catholic School, site of Thursday’s sun-kissed practice.
“Hey, I need that,” Tranks said, as he pointed to the departing bus.
Due to circumstances beyond his control, Sammy Tranks was left stranded, as most of his teammates headed back to headquarters in Mississauga. Some reporter kept him too long. When the bus leaves, the bus leaves.
Bit of a reach for me to suggest that the scene is a metaphor for Tranks’ Argos career so far, but there it is.
And like the detours and roadblocks that have stuttered the start to Tranks’ time as an Argonaut, he took the departure of his ride in stride. As long as the reporter he was entertaining could give him a lift, no problem. He didn’t even make fun of my 2008 Saturn Aura, which I found to be quite sporting.
“A lot of work, a lot of work,” said the friendly second year receiver after he was put through his most rigorous practice of the year. Tranks took a ton of reps with the first team offence at slot and returned about a dozen kicks as well. “The most work I’ve got in recent weeks.”
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“Feeling great,” he said of the day’s work. “If I get my shot, I’m gonna run with it.”
His shot might just come in Saturday’s game in Regina. If he plays, Tranks will see his first CFL action since…
“Hamilton, October first, last year, that’s when I hurt my knee,” he said, finishing the sentence. “Before that, it was Week 5, out in Edmonton,” he continued. “Limited action,” he chuckled.
If not Saskatchewan this weekend, perhaps Hamilton next Thursday. If not then, sometime, you’ve got to figure. The Argos just like Tranks too much, it seems, to not give him a bona fide shot. They love his attitude. It’s an attitude that has seen him through the disappointments of rarely starting in 2011, only to be injured when he did. An attitude that kept him re-habbing and hoping for another call, after he’d been let go before this season began, without seeing any action at all in training camp.
Tranks made his CFL debut in Week 4 of the 2011 season (versus Winnipeg) and he played well. 3 catches, 48 yards and a touchdown reception. That’s also the game where he blew up defensive end Odell Willis with the block I mentioned off the top. The following week, the numbers fell to 3 receptions, 17 yards. He didn’t get another shot until that fateful Hamilton game on October 1st.
He suffered a torn ACL in a knee, on a play he can remember with incredible detail and clarity. Even remembers that he made the catch, though it was overturned on review (a decision he still quarrels with, by the way). When the damage didn’t heal sufficiently enough on its own, he had the knee scoped just prior to training camp. That procedure left him out of action and earned him his release.
Tranks, however, put his head down and pushed forward, seriously re-habbing the knee and a bum shoulder, waiting for a call.
“Thank God (Argos’ general manager) Jim Barker still had interest in me. And they brought me back,” he said.
Rejoining the Boatmen, added to the practice roster on September 26th, the 25 year old Philadelphia native was happy to return. After all, he’d spent all of the last off-season in Toronto, taking part in the team’s “Huddle Up” bullying prevention program and helping teammate Andre Durie with a little kids’ football coaching gig.
“This feels like a second home, being in Toronto,” he said.
“Having familiar faces on the team from last year and to come back to, kind of, praise and open arms, that made me feel like this is the place to be right now. Definitely.”
It may well be that Sammy Tranks is about to get another chance on a CFL field, come Saturday. Head Coach Scott Milanovich advised that his status, as well as that of injured receiver Dontrelle Inman, may not be made until game day, although decisions may come as soon as Friday afternoon.
“Sammy’s doing some good things, offered Milanovich. “He’s gotten better since he’s been here. He gives you some return help if something were to happen to Chad (Owens).”
Tranks is super keen to see some action, but once again, will take it in stride if his number is not called.
“Whatever the coaches have in their plans, I’ll roll with that,” he said, contentedly. “I just try to work on my game everyday. I get a thrill out of that whether I get one rep or all the reps. I just love the game of football right now.”
A star kick and punt returner in high school and college, Tranks would love the opportunity to try to add more fuel to an Argos return arsenal that already boasts the league’s leading yardage man, Chad Owens.
“I like to call myself a kick returner. That’s one of the things that I specialize in,” began Tranks. “If I get a chance to show my kick return skills, it’s gonna be a great thing,” he beamed.
Thursday was a good day for Sammy Tranks. He got to return a bunch of kicks. He got to take plenty of first team reps on offence. He showed just how keen he is when, at one point, someone yelled at him to get out of the huddle, because it was time for someone else to get to take a turn. Just a little eager, eh? “Yeah, yeah, definitely,” he said with a grin.
“I felt good. I felt quick. I felt confident. I knew where to be. I hit my spots,” he added.
If a return to the Toronto line up doesn’t come to Tranks this weekend, he’s likely to just keep on keepin’ on. For him the keys to staying in the game are simple.
“Just having fun. Just having fun and having faith in God that I’ll get my chance. But, at the same time, focusing and staying prepared. There’s no time for feeling sorry for yourself.”
As the Argonauts get set to meet the Roughriders and an early blast of prairie winter, perhaps it was not the best of things that could happen.
An unseasonable warm front jetted into southern Ontario, driving the temperatures up into the low 20’s. Apart from defensive lineman Adriano Belli breaking out the shorty shorts, there is another drawback. The conditions will leave the team less than acclimatized to the expected frigid conditions in Regina. Game time temperatures are expected to be in the minus 5 range.
“It gets cold in Philly, but not like that,” said Tranks. When I advised him that I thought it DID get that cold there, he paused and then said:
“Not in October.”
Point taken.