There are some athletes in sports that are just special. Monday, the BC Lions announced the retirement of one of those athletes, as Barron Miles announced his retirement from the Canadian Football League after 12 seasons, defining himself as one of the greatest defensive backs to play the game while at the same time being a great member of the community.

Miles spent 5 of his 12 seasons in the CFL, joining the Lions after 7 years with the Montreal Alouettes. In the 189 games Miles played in the league (88 as a Lion) he recorded 505 tackles, 66 interceptions. He holds the CFL record for blocked kicks, and was a divisional all-star nine times, and a CFL all-star 6 times, including his final season. Just to go out in style Miles also led the league in interceptions last year, the third time he can stake claim to that title.

So why hang them up? Miles is 38 and at this point in his career wants to take advantage of a chance to learn a new craft in the game. With his smarts and experience he has the makings of a great coach, and it’s great to see the Lions accommodating him in that regard. Miles will join former teammate Mark Washington as defensive backs coach and will also do scouting for the team.

From BCLions.com

“I am very pleased to have Barron join the Lions coaching staff for the 2010 season as well as adding his talents to our scouting department,” said Lions GM and head coach Wally Buono. “As one of the finest defensive backs to ever play in this league, Barron’s career speaks for itself and I look forward to adding his leadership to our staff in 2010″

Like his performance on the field, Miles presence in the community is also of all-star quality. He’s been a recipient of the CFL’s Tom Pate award, given to the player who displays qualities that distinguish him from his peers. The recipient embodies the qualities of Pate, including outstanding sportsmanship, as well as charity work. Having attended training camps and practices, as well as some football camps, watching Miles work with kids shows you quality of the man.

There is no doubt that in time Barron Miles will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and hopefully he’ll be honoured by the Lions in some capacity as well.

Listen: Barron Miles talks to the TEAM 1040′s David Pratt and Don Taylor on his retirement.

Well, anyone who thinks the Lions get special favours from the officials in the league can look at Friday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders to see that just isn’t the case.

As is so often the case in sports, you get breaks and you have them go against you as well. On Friday night a critical 3rd quarter play that went against the Lions changed the course of the game, and set the Stampeders up for a 27-18 victory at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.

With the score tied at 17-17 the Stamps had the ball and quarterback Henry Burris launched a pass that was “caught” by Nik Lewis. The ball popped out when Lewis made contact with ground. CFL rules say the receiver must survive contact with the ground for a pass to be complete. The ball popped out on contact with the ground and was snatched out of the air by Barron Miles and the ruling on the field was an interception. The Stamps challenged the play and the league officials ruled Lewis made the catch and was down by contact. The Stamps scored the go ahead touchdown on the following play and the Lions never recovered.

Bad penalties, missed receivers, and continually finding themselves in 2nd and long did the Lions in in the second half, wasting what was looking to be their best effort of the season.

Both Martell Mallett and Joffrey Reynolds had big nights on the ground, but it was the Stamps defense that buckled down in the second half. A 4th quarter Buck Pierce interception pretty much sealed the deal.

Reynolds finished the night with 157 yards rushing, once again exposing the Lions weak run stopping defense, which has been an issue all season. The Lions special teams also failed them once again. After opening the scoring on an impressive drive early in the second quarter on a Martell Mallett 25 yard touchdown run the Lions surrendered a 75 yard return on the kickoff, transferring whatever momentum they had built up back to the Stamps, who would score four plays later on a seven yard Henry Burris run.

“Demetris Summers’ kickoff return gave us some momentum,” Stampeders coach John Hufnagel said. “We scored some points on that. Then when B.C. scored we were able to answer. Every time they scored, we answered.”

Buck Pierce had a decent night for the Lions, but the crucial interception in the fourth sealed the Lions fate. Then with the Lions driving and needing four yards to keep the drive alive late in the game, Pierce through a ball in the dirt to Martell Mallett with Paris Jackson wide open on a deeper route.

The loss dropped the Lions to 5-7 on the season, and any hopes of challenging for the division are starting to fade. They’ll need help from other teams for that to happen, and they’ll have to help themselves starting next week when the Saskatchewan Roughriders pay a visit to BC Place. The Lions are looking more and more like they’ll be slotting into a cross over spot in the east if they hope to get to Calgary in November.

Quick hits:

• Martell Mallett: 15 carries, 136 yards and 1 TD
• Buck Pierce: 17 for 27 236 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.
• The Stampeders honoured Wally Buono before the game.
• Nose Tackle Steve Williams made his Lions debut and was quickly dubbed “Little T” by those of us watching the game, because of his last name and his resemblance of former Lions great Tyrone Williams.

When former BC Lions star Bobby Singh was a young man starting on his way to a professional football career, he dreamed of creating a football camp for kids one day. That dream came true for Singh on May 30th when he hosted the first annual Down Set Hut Football Camp for kids in his home town of Richmond, BC. With perfect weather and a bunch of his CFL friends joining him, Singh provided a great day of football fun for over 100 kids ages 7-15.

In addition to Bobby, the camp featured current BC Lions Geroy Simon, Javier Glatt, Barron Miles, Dean Valli, Paul McCallum, Angus Reid, Sherko Haji-Rasouli and rookie Justin Sorensen. They were joined by Will Loftus of the Montreal Alouettes and Marc Beswick of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and a host of junior players and coaches.

The kids were split up into groups and spent 18 minutes at various stations designed to teach them the different aspects of the game, everything from receiving, defending, tackling, kicking and offensive line play. Each station had designated coaches giving the kids tips and encouragement. The kids also received t-shirts, prizes and talks from the CFL players and at the end of the day they got to a play a touch football game with them as well.

Singh not only plans to make the camp an annual event, his plan is to make it bigger and better, and spread it around the province as well, telling BCLionsDen.ca that next year his goal is to do a camp in the lower mainland, one on Vancouver Island, and one in the Okanagan. Singh also sponsored 20 or so kids out of his own pocket from the Boy and Girls Clubs of Vancouver.

One of the things the late Bob Ackles wanted to improve on upon his return to the Lions was building football at the grassroots level, and camps like this certainly contribute to building that foundation. CFL players are so outstanding interacting with the fans and it’s great to see a player of Bobby Singh’s stature give back to the community by introducing these kids to the game of football.

If you would like more information on Bobby Singh’s camp make sure you visit the website at http://www.downsethutfootball.com

Down Set Hut 2009 Photo Gallery: