The Guelph Gryphons will reach the halfway point of their regular season after the completion of Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees at Ottawa.
“Time’s flown by,” receiver Thomas Bresciani said. “We still have a lot to put in, a lot of work to go. It doesn’t seem like halfway at all.”
Bresciani is a first-year Gryphon who’s surprised to be getting as much playing time as he is with the squad.
“I’m getting a chance to play,” he said. “Being a part of that starting five, it’s a big deal coming this far out. Honestly, I didn’t expect to start. It means a lot.”
Bresciani, a native of Weyburn, Sask., decided to give the OUA a try after five years with the Regina Thunder of the Prairie conference of the Canadian Junior Football League.
“I knew it was competitive,” he said of the OUA. “I knew a lot. I played three years with (quarterback) Asher Hastings of McMaster and he’s kind of the reason I came out here. When he came to Mac, I started looking into it and I found out there’s a lot of good football out here and talent and a good chance to win a Vanier.”
The 6-foot, 205-pound Bresciani caught 32 passes, six for touchdowns, during his final two seasons of junior football.
“The guys are smarter and faster,” he said of the OUA as he stood on the Alumni Stadium field following a practice there this week. “There’s a lot more time put into football. I like the mentality of it here. Junior back home, we played at Mosaic Stadium and we had a sense of ownership, but playing in front of this, playing in front of a passionate Guelph fan base and every school kind of haves their backing. That’s a big difference. I like that passion and mentality behind it.”
Three games into his Gryphon career, Bresciani has caught 15 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns, the most by any receiver on the team. However, he admitted that getting used to Guelph’s no-huddle offence meant knowing his assignments on each play so that everything became automatic for him.
“I really had to pick up my feet and pick up my head and kind of play with my instincts and just rely that I know what’s all going on,” he said.
Bresciani’s highlight in the first three games of the season is his first touchdown catch, a 20-yarder from quarterback James Roberts with two and a half minutes to go in the loss to the Windsor Lancers at Windsor on Labour Day. It was one of eight receptions he had on the day he turned 23. However, his touchdown celebration resulted in a 10-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff as OUA rules deem TD celebrations to be unsportsmanlike conduct.
“That first touchdown catch, everything but the celebration at the end. That day was my birthday and it was special for me. Getting your number called, that was a big deal,” he said. “Unfortunately, it came down to us being on the bottom of it, but that touchdown put us back into it. That one stands out as of right now.”
Prior to traveling to Guelph, Bresciani was a little concerned that he wouldn’t be accepted right away by his Gryphon teammates because he was from out of the province.
“That was a big ‘what if’ when I first talked to (offensive coordinator Todd) Galloway when I first came out here,” Bresciani said. "That’s the reason I moved out in May instead of waiting until (August) when football actually starts.
“It’s tough to fit in, especially when you’re not from the area and you’re a new face in town so my big emphasis when I came out in the summer was fitting in and becoming part of the team and not really worrying about reps. All those types of things.”
He feels the early move to Guelph made things a lot easier for himself, especially at training camp.
“It made a huge difference,” he said. “Coming into camp I wasn’t a rookie face walking in. Everybody recognized me and it really helped me not worry about really trying to impress anybody and just be myself and do what I can.”
The Gryphons, 2-1 on the season, are to tangle with the Gee-Gees, 2-0, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Gee-Gees Field in Ottawa.
Next home game for the Gryphons is their Homecoming Game Sept. 24 against the Western Mustangs, 2-1, in a rematch of the teams that met in last year’s OUA championship Yates Cup game won by the Gryphons. Game time at Alumni Stadium is 1 p.m.