Coaches preach continuity

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2017 (3155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA — TO suggest Mike O’Shea, Chris Jones and Wally Buono have little in common wouldn’t be farfetched. It’d be safe to say Jason Maas, Rick Campbell and Marc Trestmen also vary in their respective views and philosophies. Ditto for Jacques Chapdelaine, Kent Austin and Dave Dickenson.

But as much as the head coaches in the Canadian Football League may differ, it’s what they all share that may be most important, at least when it comes to building the game on and off the field.

Heading into the 2017 CFL season, eight of the nine coaches in the league are under contract for at least the next two seasons, with more than half on the books through the 2019 campaign. The lone exception is Montreal’s Chapdelaine, a recent replacement for Jim Popp, who is now the general manager in Toronto. But even Chapdelaine is rumoured to have signed a multi-year deal when he was awarded the job in February.

Nonetheless, it’s a level of league-wide job security that should not only benefit the bank accounts of the men patrolling the sidelines — all coaches, unlike players, have guaranteed contracts — but also bring a level of stability that is valuable for everyone involved in the Canadian game, including its fans.

“In Ottawa, continuity is very important to us,” said Campbell, one of eight coaches (and one general manager) on a panel Thursday as part of CFL Week in Regina.

Campbell signed a multi-year extension with the Ottawa Redblacks prior to the 2016 season, before going on to defeat the Calgary Stampeders in the Grey Cup game. It was Ottawa’s second trip in as many years to the championship game, after posting a league-worst record of 2-16 in 2014.

“We’re fortunate our whole coaching staff is back, because when you get to know each other you keep growing,” he said. “Just like any business, once you know the people you’re working with you continue to grow.”

Growth is perhaps the most important aspect of a league that is in constant competition for eyeballs and is always looking for new ways to reach a bigger audience. It seems to have worked in Ottawa with Campbell, who said having familiar faces on the sidelines has created a “love affair” with fans and players.

“Our players know our fans and our fans know our coaches and I think that’s a great thing,” he said.

Buono, the CFL coach with the most wins, has spent more than two decades in the league and has been a mainstay with the B.C. Lions organization since 2003. More than anyone else, Buono understands the effect familiarity can have on a team, specifically with the coaching staff.

But it doesn’t stop there. Coaches who stick with a team for a while often assume additional responsibilities with the team, said Buono.

“There are two things that you need to do in football: win and win. But at the end of the day, that, in itself, isn’t all that we have to do,” Buono said. “We also have to entertain, we also have to make people want to come to our games, and I think one of the ways we’ve done that is being flexible, not being selfish, in trying to modify the game so it’s improved.”

“The other thing that’s happening that maybe didn’t happen years ago is when you look at the evolution of the game, the coaches are having a much more, in my mind, positive effect,” he said. “Not on strategy — coaches have always been great at that — but when you look at the rule changes, the modification of how the game is played, it’s a credit to the young coaches.”

Coaches like O’Shea, who will enter his fourth season as coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the first year of a three-year extension he signed just months ago. O’Shea played 16 years in the CFL before converting to a coach. He’s now on the league’s rules committee, doing his part to improve the CFL game.

On the field, O’Shea is coming off his best season as a head coach, guiding the Bombers to a 11-7 record after posting a combined 12-24 mark in his first two years. During those losing seasons in Winnipeg, fans grew tired of watching a struggling team and by the end of the second year with O’Shea at the helm, fans started to demand he be fired.

It can be argued had O’Shea not been given the time to assemble a team he believed could win, to create a familiarity in the locker room and on the field, that the Bombers wouldn’t be where they are today: a favourite to make the playoffs next season and compete for a Grey Cup.

“We’re all under the gun for results, and everybody wants it now but patience is a key, a virtue, and if you stick to it, most of the time you’ll get paid off,” said Popp, who sat in for an absent Trestman.

“I think Winnipeg is a perfect example of that turning the corner and the patience paid off. We’re all building and striving for that, to build that ultimate organization and to win not just one but multiple Grey Cups.”

Trestman and Popp, a duo who brought multiple Cups to Montreal during their time with the Alouettes, will now be expected to do the same in Toronto. Both have signed on for the next three years, joining a team in which they’ve had little say in filling the roster.

“Continuity, stability, like the layers of an onion, you want to build that foundation,” said Popp. “These are our challenges in Toronto that we’ve got to rebuild that foundation, so it’s nice to know the process we’ve already started the last few weeks is fun.”

But professional sports can also be unforgiving. A lot can happen in a season, much of which can be out of a coach’s control. It’s because of those reasons, Austin, head coach of the Tiger-Cats, doesn’t feel all that stable, even if the league suggests he is. It doesn’t matter that he, too, won’t see his contract expire until after the 2019 season.

“There’s an immediacy to the nature of what we do, and I think all of us feel the pressure to win and be successful,” said Austin. “Continuity is extremely important. We keep that as a direct focus of what we do.

“I understand the unique nature of having to win now but also have a have a responsibility to make sure that I’m doing the best I can with the group of people that we have as a team to make sure we have sustainability for our success, that we build a foundation for success regardless of our participation in the future.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.catwitter: @jeffkhamilton