Latest news with #versatility
Globe and Mail
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
Saskatchewan's Ferland a perfect fit anywhere on Roughriders' offensive line
Logan Ferland has built a reputation for versatility over his CFL career. The 28-year-old can play – and excel – at any position on the offensive line. His adaptability was apparent during the 2024 season, when injuries forced the Roughriders to use 13 different starters and 16 players total on the line. Ferland made 11 starts at right guard, two, including the West final, at right tackle and six, including the West semi-final, at centre. He performed so admirably he was named the outstanding offensive lineman for the West Division and a CFL all-star at guard. For Ferland, from Melfort, Sask., it hasn't been a problem shifting to multiple spots on the offensive line, because it has been something he has been doing since his junior days in the CJFL. He was often lined up against the best defensive lineman the opponents had. 'Where it started was really with the Regina Thunder,' said Ferland, who starred for the team from 2015 to 2019. 'My last couple of years they would move me around in different spots. 'I really got used to it there. I was playing in multiple positions. When I moved on to the 'Riders, I knew that would be a way I could make the team was showing my versatility even though I was undersized at the time.' It appears the Roughriders are going to have to lean on Ferland's versatility once again. The team has already lost a pair of big free agency pickups to long term injury at its training camp at Griffiths Stadium on the University of Saskatchewan campus. Centre Sean McEwen, who played last season with the Calgary Stampeders, is out with an unspecified leg injury. Roughriders head coach Corey Mace confirmed Saturday that McEwen, who earned a Grey Cup ring with the Toronto Argonauts in 2017, would be out for a lengthy stretch. Guard Philippe Gagnon tore his biceps at practice on Monday. On Wednesday, Mace said Gagnon's injury might not be season ending, but he won't be available for a while. Gagnon played with the Montreal Alouettes last season and helped them win the Grey Cup in 2023. Those injuries caused the Roughriders to re-sign Saskatchewan Huskies grad Noah Zerr on Tuesday after releasing him on May 14. The Roughriders play the first of their two pre-season games on Saturday, when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Blue Bombers at Princess Auto Stadium. Saskatchewan has a bit of time before cementing a starting offensive line. The Roughriders open their regular season June 5, hosting the Ottawa Redblacks at Mosaic Stadium. Mace said Ferland's versatility is a huge asset for the team. 'We think so highly of Logan as an offensive lineman, period, and that is at multiple positions,' said Mace. 'If something does happen, having him as somebody who can move into multiple spots allows us to keep him on the field always and affords us an opportunity to put the best linemen out there that we feel gives us the best shot to win. 'I am extremely happy with him. He takes reps at all spots still, so I can't say enough good things about Logan Ferland.' Once the injuries started to happen at training camp, it was business as usual for Ferland. He will play wherever the team needs him to play. 'I approach it like any other year, nothing changes,' said Ferland, who stands six-foot-four and weighs 300 pounds. '[The coaches] do reports for me every year, so I approach it like being ready for any spot. 'If they throw me in at centre, I will play centre. If they want to move me up to tackle, I will be ready for that. If they want to keep me at guard, I'll stay a guard.' Ferland, who says his favourite position is right guard, said a number of coaches with the Thunder and the Roughriders played a huge role in helping develop his versatility. He said he also learned a lot from now retired centre Dan Clark, who is also a Thunder alumnus, and retired guard Brandon LaBatte, a Regina Rams grad. Ferland still says it is special for him to play for the Roughriders after growing in small Saskatchewan towns. He lived in Kindersley until age 11 before moving to Melfort and later playing for the Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate Comets nine-man team in high school. He said the veterans he played with when he first joined the Roughriders reinforced that. 'It really is an honour to be able to play for this province being from here,' Ferland said. 'Growing up watching these guys and now being here, I have to pinch myself sometimes and just really realize where I am at. 'I have full-circle moments when I think back to where I initially started watching those guys and really looking up to those guys on TV.' He says he is now setting a goal for young players who want to play professionally. 'Especially the ones from Saskatchewan – from the small-town schools – that might not think they have the opportunity. 'They can make an opportunity for themselves.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why the Thunder's versatility makes them hard to beat
Why the Thunder's versatility makes them hard to beat | The Kevin O'Connor Show Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor reacts to Oklahoma City's win in Game 1 over the Minnesota Timberwolves and why the Thunder's ability to beat teams in multiple ways makes them so dangerous. Hear the full conversation on 'The Kevin O'Connor Show' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Okc just looks far more versatile. Advertisement That's obvious watching them as they won 68 games all regular season. It's been clear throughout the postseason and very clear again in game one, because Isaiah Harenstein plays only 20 minutes. He averaged 27.5 minutes last round. OKC can play two bigs, they can play one big, Chet Holmgren, like the, the stats don't pop up off the screen. He had 15 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks. I thought Chet was awesome in the game. He played great defense, played great offensively, did everything he had to do, and he's the one big out there. For a lot of those lineups, and so, OK, so you can play with different lineups, different configurations out there, they can play with a bunch of guards, they can play with a bunch of length, they can play with two bigs or 1 big, they can beat you taking half their shots in the paint, they can beat you taking half their shots from 3. Advertisement And so I understand. So much of the discourse is about Gilda Alexander, he's flopping and flailing, like, this isn't, this isn't pure basketball, you know, the, you know, I, I get it, I get that. I, I completely understand that. Some of the fouls are annoying. I wish he didn't do it, but I understand why he does it when he's getting rewarded. To me, that's more on the referees rewarding a guy for flopping more than I'm gonna I'm gonna blame a guy for taking advantage of stupid refs. In reality, I wish the conversation was so much more about OKC as a basketball team. This is a deep team with no weaknesses, they can shape shift, they can win playing any style at all, and they just pants a grizzled, experienced Minnesota team that was in the spot last year, that almost had a week of rest, a week of time to prepare for them. Advertisement But the reality is there's no preparing for the Oklahoma City Thunder, cause OKC can be whatever they want to be, or whatever they have to be on any given night, and that's why they're gonna win the series. I picked them in 6, maybe it won't go that long unless Minnesota addresses some of these things that were major concerns in game one, and they're gonna win the series, whether SGA is getting 14 free throws a game or 0 free throws a game. That's my main takeaway after this game one.
ABC News
06-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
How the potato became popular thanks to Marie-Antoinette, an ex-prisoner of war and French fries
It's hard to imagine a time when the humble potato wasn't one of the most famous vegetables on the planet. From gnocchi to cepelinai, tudou si to French fries, the potato is the original global citizen, the " They can be roasted, baked, braised, boiled, smashed, scalloped, stewed, sauteed or simply fried. Spuds can be added to salads, soups or stews, served as a side dish or planted back in the ground to repopulate. It's this versatility that makes them a household staple. But hundreds of years ago, most Europeans had never heard of the vegetable. "[Back then] if you were encountering a potato, you might think that it was a very, very strange food indeed. It was unlike anything that you'd probably ever seen before," Lauren Samuelsson, food historian and associate lecturer at the University of Wollongong, tells Photo shows Global Roaming podcast Join Walkley award-winner Marc Fennell as he uncovers the incredible moments that changed the course of history. And those who were familiar with the plant were wary of eating it. "Some clergymen were preaching that because the potato hadn't appeared in the Bible, it was not designed for human consumption by God," says Dr Samuelsson. Then came Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a prisoner-of-war turned unofficial PR agent for the potato. The young man was introduced to spuds while imprisoned behind enemy lines in Prussia, and he lived on little else for several years. Having developed a taste for this prison food, he made it his mission, once released, to revamp the image of the South American vegetable in broader Europe. With the help of Parmentier's "lavish 'potato parties", the vegetable underwent a makeover to become the staple food we know today. Europe's distaste for potatoes The Spanish first observed potatoes when they arrived in South America in 1532 to conquer the Incan Empire. Spuds were domesticated around 8,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Andes region of Peru and north-west Bolivia. The ancestors of today's cultivated potato can still be found growing wild there. There are now thousands of varieties of native potatoes in South America. ( ABC: Caddie Brain ) The Spanish invaders eventually introduced the tubers to Europe, along with other crops including tomatoes and corn. The pursuit of empire brought potatoes into contact with other parts of the world, and they ended up being the fuel that kept those empires going. "[It] was the food of the [Spanish Empire's] enslaved workforce. And that, of course, then allowed the Spanish to build up untold riches and really fuel their imperial ambitions around the world," says Dr Samuelsson. But the arrival of potatoes from the New World to the Old World was initially greeted with scepticism. The foreign vegetable, with its knobbly, misshapen design and textured skin, reminded folks of leprosy-infected limbs and stoked fears that the potato was a physical manifestation of the contagious disease. Dr Samuelsson explains this was because the prevailing medical opinion at the time posited that whatever caused or cured a disease "often looked like the disease that it was causing [or curing]". Photo shows Image of Dr Karl on a pink background and Listen app logo Dr Karl knows the best app for free podcasts, radio, music, news and audiobooks … and you don't need to be a scientist to find it! People also thought potatoes might be poisonous due to its links to the nightshade family, to the extent that the French parliament even banned the tuber in 1748. Another problem was that the wildly different climate conditions between Europe and South America did not suit It took decades for the potato to adapt to the shorter European growing season, though it had better luck growing in Ireland. "At the very beginning, it would have only been the very poorest of people who were eating potatoes," says Dr Samuelsson. Bread remained the staple food across Europe in the 18th century, but that soon changed thanks to rising prices, a revolution and a potato 'influencer'. French royalty at a potato party Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was a pharmacist in the French army when he was captured by Prussians and held as a prisoner of war in the mid-1700s. Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was a French pharmacist and agronomist. ( Supplied: Wikicommons/François Dumont ) His diet consisted largely of potato mash for the three years he was detained. At the time, Prussians were encouraged to plant and eat potatoes in the belief that if they were ever invaded, they could live off a vegetable buried underground. After his release, Parmentier became the potato's biggest advocate. A large part of his obsession with the vegetable seemed to be rooted in his own good health after years of eating only one food. Parmentier's hypothesis was that the potato must hold nutritional value. In 1770, he wrote a prize-winning essay, titled Inquiry into Nourishing Vegetables That in Times of Necessity Could Be Substituted for Ordinary Food, which argued in favour of using potatoes as an alternative to bread. Its release coincided with rising prices and food shortages in France, which had in turn fuelled unrest and anger in towns and villages up and down the country. "France and lots of European countries [were] one bad year away from famine because they [were] so reliant on wheat as their staple crop," says Dr Samuelsson. But in order for the potato to be fully embraced by society, Parmentier needed to get the elite on board. And the best way to do that was by throwing extravagant dinners. "On the advice of Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman who was over in France as an ambassador, [Parmentier] started to throw these potato parties where he would invite all of his mates," says Dr Samuelsson. Parmentier was well-connected to the French elite and used the gatherings to introduce the arbiters of cultural taste to various potato delicacies, from soup to dessert and "even potato vodka". Yet the ultimate tick of approval lay with the French king and queen, Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette. Queen Marie Antoinette reportedly attended a potato party in the 18th century. ( Supplied: National Gallery of Australia ) "The story goes that Parmentier, in one of his amazing potato parties, somehow swings it that the king and queen [came] to one of these events," says Dr Samuelsson. " When they got there, he presented them with a bouquet of potato flowers, and apparently they were so enchanted, they loved it so much that [King] Louis put potato flowers in his lapel. And Marie Antoinette decorated her hair with potato flowers. " From banned vegetable to a viable substitute for bread, the potato's evolution continued until it made its way into some the world's most famous dishes. Fried potatoes arrive in America When one of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, arrived in Paris to serve as ambassador to the French court, the potato frenzy was in full swing. "While he was over there, he was obviously hobnobbing with the great and the good. And he almost certainly could have been at one of Parmentier's parties," says Dr Samuelsson. Thomas Jefferson was a Francophile. ( Supplied: Wikicommons/Rembrandt Peale ) Jefferson developed a taste for the local cuisine, encouraging his enslaved chef James Hemings to learn to cook French food. Hemings reportedly One of those recipes was on how to make "pommes de terre frites a cru en petites tranches" or deep-fried potatoes in small cuttings. "Deep frying was becoming a real art in France … and so you can connect the dots here that someone's decided to find out what happens if you put potatoes in boiling hot oil," says Dr Samuelsson. While it's debated whether Jefferson was the first to introduce French fries to the US, his notes contain perhaps the It took more than a century for French fries to be fully embraced in America, and debate still rages over the origins of the fried potato: In Ireland, however, the tuber has a very different reputation. Too much of a good thing Potatoes are perhaps best remembered now for bringing about one of the worst famines in history. The Irish were dependent on potatoes as their primary food source until they were destroyed by a blight. ( Getty: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group ) Centuries ago, Irish peasants became reliant on the tuber after a wave of British imperial expansion deprived them of valuable land needed to farm grains and livestock and forced them into areas where fewer foods could be cultivated. Potatoes, peasants discovered, were one of the few plants that flourished in those less arable areas. "The Irish started to really rely on potatoes and it became the main part of their diet. Irish workers … would eat anywhere between 10 to 12 pounds of potatoes a day, which is four to six kilos," says Dr Samuelsson. But that all changed in 1845, when a fungus-like pathogen, Phytophtora infestans, also known as a blight, infected potato crops and made them inedible. Without their primary source of food, the Irish starved. In decades, the population halved. "When you become too reliant on one thing, it's a recipe for disaster," says Dr Samuelsson. Potato blight and famine are still a risk in many corners of the globe to this day. But it hasn't stopped the potato's dizzying rise in the culinary space. Today, it is the world's "There's not really a cuisine around the world that doesn't use potatoes and hasn't incorporated it into their food cultures, which I think just shows how wonderfully versatile it is," says Dr Samuelsson. "But it definitely still has a colonial legacy to it." 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