Music: {allcanada} NO SIGNS OF AGE AS CALVILLO SET TO BEGIN 17TH SEASON

MONTREAL -- There has been no sign of slowing down from 37-year-old Anthony Calvillo.

The Montreal Alouette goes into his 17th season not only as the dean among Canadian Football League quarterbacks but as one who remains at the top of his game.

Since taking a leave at the end of the 2007 season to be with his ailing wife, who was waging a successful battle with cancer in her abdomen, he has followed an intensive training and diet regime and, partly as a result, has kept close to his career averages, piling up 10,272 passing yards and throwing for 69 touchdowns over two seasons.

He was named the league's outstanding player in each of the last two seasons, and is coming off a second career Grey Cup.

So, in a year in which four of the eight CFL clubs will begin with a new starting quarterback, the Alouettes will roll out the same starter they've had since Calvillo took over the reins from Tracy Ham in 2000.

"Physically I felt great last year coming out of camp and I feel great again this year, so to me that's a positive sign," Calvillo said.

And while Damon Allen's all-time passing records looked unassailable when the 44-year-old retired in 2008 after 23 CFL seasons, Calvillo is closing in on them all.

He won't pass any of them this year, but he is only 9,059 yards short of Allen's mark of 72,381 passing yards and 498 shy of his 5,158 completions. In his best years, Calvillo passed for a record 6,041 yards in 2004 and completed 437 passes in 2005.

"I don't think about it too much," said Calvillo, whose CFL career began in 1994 with the defunct Las Vegas Posse. "I know the more I play, the more opportunities we'll get individually and as a team to set records.

"If they come, it means we're doing a good job and it means I'm doing a good job and that's what I want to do."

Calvillo missed two games in 2009, so his numbers were down somewhat to 396 completions for 4,639 yards, third in the league behind Edmonton's Ricky Ray and Calgary's Henry Burris. His 108.4 quarterback rating led all CFL starters.

A concern this season is that his back-up Adrian McPherson damaged a knee ligament in the pre-season and will be gone for six-to-eight weeks. That makes promising but untested Chris Leak the back-up, with Ricky Santos in the third string role.

Last season, McPherson showed he is close to being ready to be a starter, although he and the others are still waiting for their chance behind a veteran who does not look to be getting old.

"These young guys are waiting for an opportunity to play and take over this team," said Calvillo. "One day it's going to happen.

"When it will happen, I'm not sure. But we have two guys that can go in and help this team win if I go down for whatever reason."

Only Edmonton, with eight-year veteran Ray, and Calgary with 11-year man Burris, have such stability at the most important position on the field.

In the East Division, steadily improving Hamilton saw veteran Kevin Glenn win the starting job from Quinton Porter during the 2009 campaign and lead the Tiger-Cats to the playoffs. He cut down dramatically on the number of interceptions he previously threw as pivot in Winnipeg and, if he falters, Porter remains a solid back-up with some experience.

The Blue Bombers look to have upgraded by grabbing five-year veteran Buck Pierce, who had been released by the B.C. Lions. Pierce suffered a concussion and then went down with a shoulder injury last season, but if he is hurt, Winnipeg also has a capable and experienced back-up in Steven Jyles.

The real question mark in the East is Toronto, which has a pair of newcomers. Former NFL pivot Cleo Lemon was handed the starting job even if he looked to have been outplayed by Dalton Bell in the pre-season. Lemon struggled to complete passes in exhibition play, but balanced that with some impressive runs out of the backfield.

In the West, Ray remains the quarterback who gives Calvillo the most competition when it comes to completions and passing yards. Last season he led the league for a second year with 4,916 yards in an off-year for the Eskimos. He also has a veteran back-up with starting experience in Jason Maas.

On the defending West champion Saskatchewan Roughriders, Darian Durant is back for a second season as a starter who is often as liable to take off with the ball as to pass it. Last year, he ran for 501 yards. He'll be looking to cut down on the 21 interceptions he threw last year, although many of them were early in the campaign. His back-up is former Blue Bomber Ryan Dinwiddie.

Burris led the Stampeders to a Grey Cup in 2008 and followed that with a strong season with 4,831 passing yards, but there were concerns that his interceptions rose to 16 and that this year, he will be lining up behind an inexperienced offensive line. And if anything happens to Burris, there are questions about the back-ups, led by former Argonaut Cody Pickett.

In Vancouver, Casey Printers returned last season and looked impressive in winning back the starting job. The dynamic passer and runner was the CFL's outstanding player with the Lions in 2004. He jumped to the NFL and then was tepid with Hamilton on his return to the CFL, but he seems to thrive under Lions coach Wally Buono, who has a magic touch with quarterbacks.

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