Contract a vote of confidence

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2012 (5266 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Those searching for reasons as to why the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are retaining head coach Paul LaPolice should look no further than the 4-14 record in 2010.

Coaches associated with those sub-par seasonal marks don’t stay coaches for very long, as the results business of pro football typically doesn’t make time for mistakes to correct themselves. In the case of LaPolice, though, the .222 winning percentage he put up in that rookie season as head coach not only forced him to work harder, it also improved his stock within the organization.

The club inked LaPolice to a two-year extension Tuesday, putting him under contract through the 2014 season. Terms of the deal were not announced.

LaPolice is always tied to that ugly 4-14 record. Fair or unfair, that’s up for debate, but according to GM Joe Mack, the experience gained through that first year — the frustration behind closed doors, the search for slivers of success — put his coach and his team in a better position today.

“The fact that we were 4-14 and we were taking a fair amount of understandable flak, if you will, the fact that we were able to overcome that and get into first place and go to the Grey Cup says a lot, and Paul deserves a great deal of that credit,” Mack told reporters as the club introduced the coaching staff for the 2012 season.

“We had a lot of hurdles last year,” he added. “We had a big turnaround, and then if you factor in that we lost a beloved coach, Richard Harris, and Paul was able to guide us through that and to get first place and get to the Grey Cup, I think speaks to itself. I think he’s an up-and-coming young head coach.

“He merited and deserved that extension.”

The 41-year-old LaPolice, who has a 14-22 career record (.389) in his first two seasons wearing the big headset and holding the master clipboard, was his usual straight-ahead self Tuesday: never too high in the media scrums; never too low off the record.

“You have to be very grounded in the fact, I tried in that 4-14 season to try to be the (support) person… we’re doing it right, being positive, showing people that there are things going right even though the wins aren’t there,” LaPolice said.

The wins eventually came in 2011, with the Bombers doing a complete about-face by winning the East Division and earning a berth in the Grey Cup (Winnipeg lost 34-23 to B.C.). LaPolice also picked up a coach of the year nomination.

If he’s feeling a little more comfortable these days, the coach didn’t tip his hand Tuesday.

“I would say I was comfortable going into my first year,” he said. “Part of this process is you have to believe you can do the job, and I don’t think there are a lot guys who are going to be successful if they don’t believe in themselves.”

By finally giving LaPolice a net to work under (he was entering the final season of his original three-year deal), the Bombers rid themselves of another distraction for this season.

Employing lame-duck coaches, those with no security past the current campaign, is a gamble, as one never completely knows how players (and other coaches) will respond to the charges from a guy who may or may not be around next season. Tie that possible disruption to the stadium move and the heavy road weight to start the schedule, and it could have made for an unfair scenario for a head coach trying to get his club back to the Grey Cup.

Job security is important.

Mack doesn’t put a lot of stock in that premise, though.

“I can’t say that that factored in to any great degree. I’m aware of it, and that’s just part of the nature of the pro sports business,” said Mack.

“I felt that it was important for Paul and the team that there be stability there, and that was understood throughout the organization. So it was important, but it wasn’t an overriding factor.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca