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Sun ready to turn the page

A new season, a new head coach and some old wounds to lick.

That's what faces the Okanagan Sun as they embark on a new BC Football Conference season, and put behind them an ugly end to 2018.

In what became a personal battle for Langley head coach Howie Zaron, the Rams throttled the Sun 39-7 in the league title game.

Sun head coach Ben Macauley resigned soon after, replaced by former assistant and CFLer Jamie Boreham.

Boreham begins work on what will be the 2019 roster this weekend with the opening of training camp.

"We'll turn the page from that," said Boreham referring to the end of last season. "We'll be a different team than what we were last year. We're going to focus on us, we're going to focus on now, then work to be stronger tomorrow."

The Sun have several holes to fill on both sides of the football, but none more important than at quarterback where oft-injured pivot Jakob Loucks is not returning.

In his place, the Sun looked east for a pair of older players they hope can lead the team this season.

"We've got two veteran guys coming in, one from Toronto, Alex Douglas and another from the Saskatoon Hilltops, Ethan Newman.

"We have a couple of young guys we're looking to groom under them. We're focusing on now, and making sure our future development is strong for years to come."

Boreham says he's looking forward to seeing the battle between Douglas and Newman unfold during camp.

He said neither quarterback has been anointed the starter, stating the best player will be the starter.

That goes for each position on the field.

About 80 players will take part in camp, some of those who will be battling for starting jobs and some younger players brought in to develop into starters down the road.

"We're going to turn over 10 plus kids every year...and the more kids we can carry over from year-to-year, the more consist we'll be, and the better the fundamentals and systems will be."

The Sun will roll with two-a-day practices on the weekend with single evening workouts during the week, in preparation for the season opener Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Apple Bowl against the Kamloops Broncos.

We have so many new people that there's going to be a bit of a learning curve of who's who and what's what...how things are done and the changes we're going to make from the past," said Boreham of camp.

"A lot of it is how can we be the best that we can be and get better at the end of each day."



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