CAROLINE — Jim Bystrom believes the potential for greatness lies within all athletes, but somewhere, for many, that drive to be great was hijacked.
In an effort to inspire his athletes, the head coach of the Caroline Cougars football team brought three Grey Cup Champion Calgary Stampeders out to put his players and the Rocky Mountain House Rebels through the paces.
“In some sense, mediocrity is OK in our society and that has led to way too many kids to underachieve. And as long as we have a society that wants to hand things to kids, make it easy and not make them work for it, these kids will continue to underachieve,” said Bystrom, in the shadow of the Kurt Browning Arena, a symbol of the small-town kid who reached for greatness. “If they see the potential they have within them, they can do amazing things.”
Making the trip to Caroline for the Tuesday and Wednesday camp were linebacker Deron Mayo, defensive back Keon Raymond and receiver Marquay McDaniel. The three of them will pick up their championship rings on Friday. The camp was set up by Bystrom through the Stampeders’ chaplain Rodd Sawatzky, who also works with the Calgary Flames and Roughnecks and believes strongly in reaching out to youth and giving them positive examples to follow.
Through two, two-and-a-half-hour sessions, the Stampeders ran their much younger counterparts through a series of drills, many of which they still concentrate on on a daily basis.
“We’re going to cover as much as we can ... basically we’re going to go over the fundamentals and honestly, to this day, that’s something we still practice on,” said Mayo.
“Hopefully we can get that through to them that it’s important to know the basics and how to be a good football player.”
Even though the Cougars play in the six-man high school football league and the Rebels in the 12-man league, the skill sets are similar and the fundamentals are still the same. In fact, as far as pure athleticism goes, the six-man players may have the slight edge.
“It’s like going from American football where the field is bigger, you’ve got an extra man, but you have to be fast up here in Canada,” said Raymond, who grew up in St. Louis and went to Middle Tennessee State University after two years at Highland Community College in Kansas.
“These kids playing six-man have to be able to run and they have to be able to catch, somebody might go down and you have to put another one out there quick. You have to know the whole game.”
But through it all, the Stampeders players hope a message of hard work and success rubs off on their young charges. For them, it’s a story of leading by example. Most American players that end up in the CFL are there through hard work and determination. Those that come North, misjudging the quality of the league flameout or get cut before their first regular season game.
Those that stick it out for the long-term, like the three Stampeders in Caroline, are there because they didn’t give up on themselves, despite whatever odds they may have been facing. Some are from small, dust-bowl towns, or like Raymond went to even smaller junior colleges, but it is there where they developed the tools they needed to succeed.
“I know what these kids go through, I spent two years in that town, but I became an awesome football player because it allowed me to work hard and do the little things to be able to get out of the town,” said Raymond. “For me and my teammates, there were always lots of obstacles that were put in our way to deter our dream of playing, but it’s things you choose to fight through and if these kids continue to fight through it and refuse to give up on their dream, I think they can play easily in the CFL because of the motivation they have.”
Bystrom made the effort to bring in their football cousins from up the road to get in on these lessons. The two programs have formed a friendly rivalry over the years, and even play each other in exhibition games, but he has a desire to see all players from the region succeed, not just his own.
“There’s a whole bunch of young guys for whom this is going to unlock doors,” he said. “All of these kids have friends that have allowed fear to not allow them to try something new, whereas these kids are trying something new, learning to love it, enjoy the challenge of it and it’s going to take them places. Even as husbands and fathers it’s going to make them better.”
From here the Stampeders get back into their own regimen with the start of training camp on Sunday. Though they tasted greatness with one of the most dominant seasons in recent CFL history, culminating in a 20-16 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 2014 Grey Cup, they have their sights set on writing their own legacy.
“It’s been a long off-season, especially carrying the cup Around ... but you always want to get back at it at again,” said Raymond. “We’re going to fly around and do our best to be the first Calgary Stampeders team to repeat.”
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com