Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson is seen in this undated file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last week I wrote that backup quarterbacks Dane Evans, Vernon Adams, Jr., Nick Arbuckle and Cody Fajardo had made the most of their opportunities.
The same can be said of rookie head coaches, Khari Jones, Orlando Steinauer and Craig Dickenson.
After opening the season 1-3, Dickenson’s Roughriders have won nine of their last 10 as he heads for Calgary this week and a showdown with his brother Dave.
Although he had been a long-time assistant coach in the CFL, nothing completely prepares a man for the top job. I asked Dickenson what has surprised him the most about the head coaching position.
“I think what surprised me the most was the sense of responsibility and love you feel for your team and for the men under your leadership,” he responded. “As an assistant I was close with most of the players and really felt a connection to them.
“However, as a head coach I think you feel that connection even more and you feel a real sense of duty and responsibility for them and their well-being. I can imagine it is much the same sense of responsibility a parent feels for their children. You want them to feel loved and needed and valued, and you want them to be happy and fulfilled people in their work lives and their personal lives. I think this connection to the players and this sense of responsibility and level of concern and care for them is what has surprised me most.”
He’s on the right track. When doing interviews for my first book Grey Cup: A History, I asked Hugh Campbell – who coached the greatest dynasty of all CFL time – what approach he brought to his Eskimo teams from 1977-82.
“I genuinely was interested in each player and talked to each player. Never a week went by where I didn’t have a good discussion with a player about his feelings on life and goals and whether he was getting to where he wanted to get to and all that.”
Campbell stressed character, integrity and loyalty to the group.
“The main thing that made us good was everybody worked together. If someone wasn’t team oriented then we asked them to move along. Sometimes we played against guys that were stars but we’d rather have had them be a star somewhere else than a distraction here.”
I asked Craig Dickenson what has been most difficult for him.
“The balancing of all the daily tasks that come with being a head coach. I really enjoy diving into film study and game planning, specifically the kicking game. With the HC job, I have a lot of other responsibilities that take time away from that. We have excellent coaches here in all three phases of the game and these men do a fantastic job of game planning and teaching. Because of their expertise, I can devote time to head coaching responsibilities and know that the game plan is going to be sound, well-thought out and taught well to the players.”
The man with the most coaching wins, Wally Buono, looked back on his first year as the boss. “I learned the things I valued the most, truth and honesty, paid dividends – being able to look a man in the eye and know you haven’t wronged him for any reason. That goes a long way.” As to what surprised him the most, “The emotional drain. It’s difficult always being in a position of authority where you’re always making decisions. That gets very weary.”
The man with the second-most wins is the late Don Matthews. After his first year at the helm (1983 in B.C.) he was taken aback by “you have to pay so much attention to detail. There are many more demands on your time. You have to deal with so many things that are not directly related to coaching on the field.”
The year 2016 was brother Dave Dickenson’s inaugural season with Calgary. “I didn’t have much to go on. I knew it would take a lot of hard work and it did. It went smoothly, it really did. All credit to the players, they bought what I was selling.”
Dave has made it to the Grey Cup his first three seasons, winning last year. Rookie Craig means to end that streak.
Graham Kelly has covered the CFL for the Medicine Hat News for 47 years. Feedback for this column can be emailed to sports@medicinehatnews.com.
