Road-trip doubleheader uncharted territory for Bombers’ training staff

By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 4:26 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 30, 2019

GUELPH, Ont. — Brad Fotty is in his 30th year with the Blue Bombers and his 22nd as the head equipment manager of the CFL club.

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GUELPH, Ont. — Brad Fotty is in his 30th year with the Blue Bombers and his 22nd as the head equipment manager of the CFL club.

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GUELPH, Ont. — Brad Fotty is in his 30th year with the Blue Bombers and his 22nd as the head equipment manager of the CFL club.

But nothing in his experience could have fully prepared him for his latest undertaking: a 10-day road trip headquartered in this southern Ontario city, bookended by games in Hamilton and Toronto.

It’s a massive job for Fotty and his industrious crew of assistants, Kevin Todd and Jared Cronk, as well as head athletic therapist Al Couture and his travelling road tandem of assistant athletic therapist Chris Mikolajek and strength and conditioning specialist Brayden Miller.

School and athletic department personnel at the university have welcomed the Bombers with open arms and, with the aid of a sparkling new football facility, provided the infrastructure to make the whole trip feasible. (Hannah Yoon / Canadian Press files)

“It’s not bad,” said the 45-year-old Fotty following the club’s Tuesday afternoon practice at the University of Guelph’s Alumni Stadium. “It’s not like it’s hockey, where you’re playing three, four games in seven days or eight days. You’re playing two (games), so that’s nice. But the dragging between takes a while.”

Rather than return home between games, Winnipeg’s brass decided the short turnaround time between last Friday’s game against the Tiger-Cats and another, six days later at BMO Field against the Argonauts, required some out-of-the-box thinking.

And headquartering at the alma mater of head coach Mike O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters seemed to make the most sense. School and athletic department personnel have welcomed the team with open arms and, with the aid of a sparkling new football facility, provided the infrastructure to make the whole trip feasible.

“The University of Guelph has been outstanding,” said Fotty. “Whatever we’ve needed, they’ve been here for us to give us a hand, and it’s been awesome. It’s a beautiful facility, there’s lots of room. Because you never know, moving with 65 guys and 10 coaches and all the staff. Was there going to be enough room? But there’s been plenty of room here and they’ve been so accomodating. They made us feel like this was our own home the few days we’ve been here.”

The scope of the Blue Bombers road show was so large that Fotty and Couture combined to sent 160 pieces of luggage through a cargo jet company ahead of the team’s arrival, when 90 pieces are the normal load. And when it was impossible to transport larger items such as blocking sleds, Fotty was able to borrow them.

The equipment crew arrived a day in advance of the team. All of that luggage was trucked it from Hamilton to Guelph and then on to Toronto after Wednesday’s walk-though. After Thursday’s game, Fotty’s crew will load the truck again for the return trip to Winnipeg, just in time for a Sunday practice at IG Field.

“Our staff does a great job of making it almost seamless for the players,” said quarterback Matt Nichols. “We just kinda come in and do our work. It’s incredible they can do all this in such a short span and be so efficient at it.”

Couture, in his 16th season with the club and his 14th as head athletic therapist, tried to plan for any scenario.

“Here, from a supply standpoint, you’ve gotta have your stuff for one game, what you might go through in a practice week and you’ve got another game after that,” said Couture, 35. “So you’ve gotta bring a lot more stuff. Due to the nature of this sport, you kinda have to expect the unexpected.”

Massive amounts of tape, post-injury equipment such as braces, spints and materials need to fabricate new devices were also on a list of must-have items.

“I brought way too much of some things like tape,” said Couture. “But you never know. If it’s pouring rain for two days and guys are changing tape a little more often or if we had a bad-weather game in Hamilton — guys are coming in at halftime and getting re-taped — it’s not an option to run out. So I packed for extreme weather. What if that happens two times in a row, in Toronto? You just don’t want to run out. I should be left with extra if the weather is nice.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14