Mississauga – Argonauts’ Head Coach Bart Andrus and his staff have two extra sets of eyes to evaluate all of the talent at this year’s training camp. John Allen, who will work on offence and with the quarterbacks, and Ty Gregorak, who will work with the defence, will work as guest coaches until the Argos’ first pre-season game at Rogers Centre on June 17.
Commented Head Coach Bart Andrus, “We’re very pleased to have both John and Ty join us for training camp. John is a familiar face to the majority of our staff. He understands the offence and the terminology because he was in Europe for three years with us. Most importantly, he’ll be able to relieve me so that I won’t need to spend 100% of my time with the quarterbacks, which will be a great help.” Andrus continued, “Ty comes from the University of Montana – a nationally renowned program – having played in the Division 1 championship in eight of the past nine years, including three appearances in the final. He’s going to assist Richard Kent with the secondary and gives us an extra pair of eyes on the large field. He has good expertise on defence and we’re excited to have him for the coming weeks.”
John Allen is the Coordinator of Player Personnel & Development at Penn State University. A former Head Coach and Receivers Coach for the Berlin Thunder in NFL Europa (2007), he also spent three seasons (2004-07) as an assistant coach with Bart Andrus and the Amsterdam Admirals. The thirteen-year coaching veteran has held a variety of positions at Lock Haven University, Bucknell University, University at Albany and held internships with five NFL clubs. In 2005, he was selected to coach in the NCAA East West Shrine game and coached in Penn State’s 2009 Rose Bowl loss to USC. He holds a bachelor of science from James Madison University.
Ty Gregorak has been the linebackers coach at the University of Montana since 2003, and last season he added Recruiting Coordinator to his title. The Grizzlies went 14-2 in 2008, losing in the national championship game to Richmond. He had four players named First-Team All Big Sky Conference last season and has coached a total of ten all-conference players. Himself an Academic All-Big XII selection in 2000, Gregorak was also a finalist for the National Academic-Athletic Achievement Award. In 2001, he earned a B.A. at Colorado in communication studies. His wife is Annie and the couple has a baby boy named Gage.
The Argos also continued their tradition of offering an open invitation to university coaches from the OUA, QUFL and AUFC. Also included is a special guest coach from Football PEI, Brian Tancowny. The island province is experiencing resurgence in grassroots football development. The following CIS coaches will visit Argonauts’ training camp in 2009: Pat Tracy and Ryan Bechmanis from Queen’s University, Sonny Wolfe and Clint Utley from McGill University, Marc Santerre and Spiro Feradouros of University of Montreal and University of Toronto coaches Greg DeLaval, John Engel and Ken Mazurek.