ompeted against regional-level athletes in front of around 150 spectators in an event hastily organized after the track teams ban was upheld by the C

Under new coach Dan Hawkins, the Montreal Alouettes are hoping to quickly form an identity. "It better not take very long," Hawkins said following their final practice before their regular season opener. "I think were getting there, were very close, you need those seminal moments that happen during games." With Marc Trestman, the teams mandate was simple: work hard, respect your opponent and maintain composure and discipline on the football field. Various team mantras were apparent during his tenure, including the popular "win the day." The team often took on the demeanor of their head coach on and off the field. "You know it took a little while to get used to him, just like it will take a little while for us to adjust to Hawkins," said defensive lineman John Bowman who enters his eighth season with the team. "Not to say it in a bad light, its just that trust isnt built overnight, we got to build our way to trust." Hawkins is clearly very different than the reserved and soft-spoken Trestman. General manager Jim Popp went outside the box and picked a coach whos loud, boisterous and provides sound bites by the dozen. The team will likely follow suit and the Alouettes that people have come to know, could have a much different feel to them. "Its been a work in progress," Popp said. "Each day is a new experience so whatever mistakes he makes, hell question and improve on them daily." Hitting the ground running will be key, but there will be some growing pains along the way with the offense. Quarterback Anthony Calvillo will be working with a limited playbook for the first couple games trying to learn a new system in a short amount of time. "Whats great is they havent overloaded us," Calvillo said. "They have a great amount of plays that weve really focused on and were trying to move forward from there." The offense will start the season without their top to running backs Brandon Whitaker and Jerome Messam while Chris Jennings will have the opportunity to show if what he did in a small sample size of seven games, specifically a standout game in Edmonton where he had 124 total yards, can be sustained for an entire season. Calvillo will be working with arguable the best wide receiving core in the league as Arland Bruce gets added to a mix that already includes Jamel Richardson, S.J. Green and Brandon London. There is a lot of information to digest for both the coaching staff and players early in the year, but the good news for the Alouettes is that they have a favorable schedule to start the season. "The first game is always tough, you dont know what the true personnel is going to be, the schemes, what theyre going to come out with," said offensive lineman Josh Bourke. "All we got to do is follow our rules and well be okay." Wholesale Nike Shoes Black Friday . -- In a span of seven Washington Redskins offensive plays, Justin Tuck sacked Robert Griffin III four times. Nike Shoes Black Friday Online . By having more great seasons. Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. http://www.nikeshoesblackfriday.com/ . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Nike Shoes Black Friday Discount . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Nike Shoes Black Friday Sale .S. Open champion Justin Rose birdied the first hole with a blind shot he hit to a foot of the pin, and he stayed in front Tuesday until he completed a 4-under 67 for a two-shot lead over Jason Dufner in PGA Grand Slam of Golf. MOSCOW -- A depleted Russian team departed for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, missing dozens of athletes who were excluded amid the countrys doping scandal.Team members left on a charter flight from Moscows Sheremetevo airport to Brazil, a day after an emotional farewell ceremony with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.More than 100 athletes from what was originally a 387-strong team have been barred from competing in Rio by international sports federations under sanctions which most Russian athletes consider unfair.Were after medals, thats it, handball player Anna Sen said as she prepared to board the flight. We need to fight for those athletes who were disqualified.Volleyball player Sergei Tetyukhin, a four-time Olympic medalist, will be Russias flagbearer for the opening ceremony in Rio, according to pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, has become a de facto spokeswoman for Russian athletes excluded from the Olympics and gave a tearful address to the team in the Kremlin on Wednesday.Today, as never before, we need to stay united and become a family, the 40-year-old Tetyukhin said, ignoring what he called provocations addressed at our team and our mighty country.No track and field athletes were among the contingent heading for Rio, since the entire track team is banned from competing, except for a single U.S.-based long jumper, following revelations of widespread doping.The track team did, however, attend the ceremonial farewell with Putin on Wednesday, when the Russian president branded restrictions on Russia as pure discrimination.Hours after the plane carrying the Russian team took off, the track and field team gathered across town in a small stadium for what was billed as an Olympic consolation event.World champions competed against regional-level athletes in front of around 150 spectators in an event hastily organized after the track teams ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last week.Isinbayeva watched from the sidelines, vowing defiance and legal action.You cant break Russians, she said. People have tried to break us down, but its never worked ... What doesnt kill us makes us stronger.She added that she plans to file another appeal to CAS and also the European Court of Human Rights.My conscience is clean, said long jumper Vasily Kopeikin, another athlete barred from Rio. Time will show those people who suspended us.Kopeikiin added that he would not watch any Olympic events in which Russia was not taking part.ddddddddddddWhile Russia avoided a blanket ban from the games at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee board on Sunday, the IOC imposed new restrictions on Russia. International sports federations must now remove any athlete previously banned for doping or who was implicated in a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that accused Russia of a mass cover-up of failed drug tests.Some federations have taken a tough line, excluding many Russian team members from events such as rowing, canoeing and swimming. Other sports, such as judo and tennis, have allowed the entire Russian team to compete in their sport. These rulings must still be ratified by CAS.Some Russian athletes had flown to Rio in advance of the main delegation, including gymnasts and swimmers. Russias head swim coach Sergei Kolmogorov told Russian agency R-Sport that swimmers barred from the games, including world 100-meter breaststroke champion Yulia Efimova, were at a pre-Olympic training camp in Brazil in the hope of a late reprieve to allow them to race in Rio.Russias weightlifting team has been dogged by doping cases and faced further embarrassment Wednesday when retests of samples from the 2012 Olympics saw four Russians, including three medalists, test positive. The entire lifting team risks being banned from the Rio Games because of the large number of failures in retests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.Putin last week called for the creation of a new state-backed anti-doping commission to draw up future strategy. In a clear sign of coordination, it was set up within hours under Vitaly Smirnov, a former Soviet sports minister and IOC member.Smirnov told local media Thursday that the new commission would be independent of the government, despite containing several senior figures with links to the Kremlin.Smirnov also insisted that the government was not involved in doping, despite allegations in the report for WADA by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren that sports ministry officials oversaw a mass doping program and a cover-up.We will welcome the arrival of WADA and we rule out any attempts at interference by the state or other structures, he said. In Russia there is not and never has been any state support for doping. ' ' '