Former Eastern Washington quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell has signed a contract to play football this year for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

Mitchell, who led the Eagles to a national title in 2010 and won the Walter Payton Award last year, said he plans to sign a contract later today and report to rookie camp on May 30.

“It's a childhood dream come true,” said Mitchell from his hometown of Katy, Texas.

Eastern Washington strong safety Matt Johnson was drafted in the fourth round of the National Football League draft by the Dallas Cowboys.

Here is Johnson's reaction to the good news: http://www.dallascowboys.com/multimedia/multimedia_center.cfm?id=FA39BF0C-A51E-FB49-370429B89D4B9678

Please join me at noon, right here, for a live chat on Eastern football. In the meantime, here are links to some recent EWU-related stories, including last night's announcement by former SMU quarterback Kyle Padron that he has been cleared to play football this fall at EWU.

We are halfway through spring drills at Eastern, and also with our eight-part series on the different unit. Here's a link to my story today on the offensive line . Tomorrow, space permitting, you can expect the same treatment on a defensive line that should be very strong.

Meanwhile, I spent Tuesday afternoon at practice, which everyone agreed was the most physical of the spring,

The Eagles opened spring drills Tuesday afternoon, and here's my story from Roos Field, where I will be again this afternoon (wearing snow boots, judging by what I see outside this morning). I will also be sending regular Tweets, so please follow me at @srjimallen.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Big Sky Conference is gearing up for spring ball…

On the day of their first spring practice , the Eastern Washington Eagles completed their coaching staff Tuesday with the hiring of running backs coach Kiel McDonald.

McDonald is the third new coach Eastern has hired since last season. The Eagles earlier added cornerbacks coach Cherokee Valeria and tight ends/offensive tackles coach Brian Strandley.

Eastern opens the first of 11 spring football practices Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Roos Field, and all are open to the public. For a preview of spring ball, here's my story from Sunday. I plan to attend most practices and all scrimmages, culminating in the Red-White spring game on April 28. Also, I will send tweets from practices and scrimmages, so follow me at @srjimallen on Twitter.

Filling a hole that had been vacant since the beginning of last season, Eastern Washington hired Cherokee Valeria as cornerbacks coach, the school announced Wednesday.

Valeria replaces Torey Hunter, who was hired by Idaho in August.

The NCAA has notified Eastern Washington that wide receiver Tyler Hart has been granted a sixth year of eligibility.

Expected to be a slot receiver and returner for the Eagles last season as a senior, he missed EWU’s first three games, but returned to catch a nine-yard pass versus Montana State. But he lasted only three plays against the Bobcats before he was injured again and lost for the season. Hart was also lost for the year with a broken scapula in EWU’s fourth game of the 2008 season.

I've just returned to my hotel after filing my story on Eastern Washington's season-ending loss to Montana in the Big Sky conference baksetball semifinals. In the end, the script played out the same as two previous Eagle losses to the Griz, who kept pounding the ball inside, drawing fouls and going to the line. Thirty-two times.

I caught up with the Eastern Washington men's basketball team at their practice Sunday evening, and they feel tournament-tested after their big win Saturday afternoon over Idaho State. Look for a preview of the gam in Tuesday's paper. The team left for Missoula this morning to prepare for their Big Sky semifinal game at Montana Tuesday night at 7,300-seat Dahlberg Arena, which can be a pretty intimidating place:

Eastern Washington's rousing Senior Night win last night over Idaho State (check out Dan Pelle's great photo essay here) was not only a big win for the program and first-year head coach Jim Hayford, it means that fans will get one more chance to see seniors Cliff Colimon, Laron Griffin, Cliff Ederaine and Tremayne Johnson. The tip-off for the quarterfinal against ISU is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reese Court, and tickets may be obtained at www.goeags.com or by calling 1-800-325-7328.         

If the Eastern men's basketball team wants to stay at home, it needs to win tonight against Idaho State in order to stay there tonight for an even bigger game Saturday - the Big Sky Conference quarterfinals. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. at Reese Court.

With a huge road win last night, Eastern Washington clinched a spot in the Big Sky Conference tournament. We told you that much in this morning's paper, but not the reason, which are losses the same night by Northern Colorado and Sacramento State.

…and almost everyone else in the Big Sky Conference (sorry, NAU). The Eagles get three games in six days, including two against Idaho State and one at Portland State. So where will the Eags wind up in the postseason? It's way too complicated, but if they can at least win two of these next three, it's a good bet the Eagles will host a first-round conference playoff game on March 3.

Thanks to a stirring win last night over Northern Colorado, the Eastern Washington men's basketball team will be in a nice frame of mind for Saturday's Bracket Buster game at UC Irvine. They also got some help Wednesday from Weber State, which defeated reeling Montana State, and from Portland State, which handed Sacramento State its 10th conference loss and put the Hornets on the brink of elimination from the Big Sky Tournament. So, what are the Eagles' chances for postseason play?

For the stat geeks out there, here's a look at Northern Colorado, which visits Eastern Washington for an important Big Sky game Wednesday night. The Bears are coming off a 77-64 overtime win over Montana State, and boast the 27th best field-goal percentage in the country at 47.7 percent

After a tough loss at Weber State, it's time for Eastern Washington to move on.

Just one look at the Big Sky Conference men's basketball standings (below) underscores the importance of Eastern's home game Wednesday night against Northern Colorado. A win would put the Eagles two games ahead in the loss column over UNC.

Let the scoreboard watching begin. Well, let it continue, since we do it all the time. Eastern wasn't playing last night, but was more than an interested bystander as the rest of the Big Sky Conference was in action. And while EWU's next opponent, Weber State, and Montana clinched first-round byes last night in the Big Sky Tournament, the rest of the six-team field is unsettled. In fact it's downright unsettling, expecially if your name is Montana State.

Montana clinched a playoff spot last night with a dominating win over Idaho State, joining Weber at the top of the men's basketball standings. Barring some upsets, those two will get the first-round byes in the Big Sky tournament which begins on March 3.

The Wildcats' Damian Lillard is about ready to retire the Sky's Player of the Week award, winning it for the fifth time this season. He's also the leading scorer in the nation at 25.5 points a game.