By Tim Switzer,
Regina Leader-Post
Frank, meet Frank.
For the first time in his university coaching career, Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal was introduced to the Frank Tindall Trophy, an award he won Thursday morning as the national coach-of-the-year.
McCrystal was selected over Steve Sumarah of the St. Mary’s Huskies, Leroy Blugh of the Bishop’s Gaiters and Pat Sheahan of the Queen’s Golden Gaels to win the Tindall.
After accepting the trophy, McCrystal was reluctant — much like he was after winning the Canada West coach-of-the-year award — to take credit for it.
“There are too many people involved in the program,” McCrystal said Thursday from Toronto, site of this week’s Vanier Cup and Grey Cup festivities — including year-end awards for both the CIS and CFL. “The award itself really recognizes the contribution that coaches across the country make.”
There is more to this award than just McCrystal guiding the Rams to a 6-2 regular-season record — their best ever in the CIS.
In 2004, a year after Regina lost several of its veterans stars that led it to three consecutive Hardy Cup finals, the Rams were 0-8. Despite that, McCrystal and his staff stuck with their young players that couldn’t win a game. Those players have grown into the likes of linebacker Mat Nesbitt (the winner of this year’s Presidents’ Trophy as the top defensive player in Canada), quarterback Teale Orban (a two-time Hec Crighton nominee) and offensive lineman Ryan Ackerman (a 2007 Roughriders draft pick). In that time, the Rams have also improved from 0-8, to 3-5 in 2005, to 4-4 in 2006 and to 6-2 in 2007.
“When we came in(to the CIS in 1999), we had a lot of those players that were junior players and a lot of them stayed,” said McCrystal. “So where was there room for the Grade 10s, 11s and 12s that were coming out of high school? I don’t want to say we lost a generation, but we had some very special challenges to try and incorporate that new group of recruits into the program. When those guys moved out in 2003, a lot of guys got thrown into the fire in 2004.”
McCrystal and Nesbitt’s wins this week may also indicate a wider acceptance of the Rams into the CIS football fold. The Rams organization is, after all, a very different program than the Manitoba Bisons or the Alberta Golden Bears.
Coming from junior football, the Rams were one of the best funded teams at the level and immediately became one of the top funded teams in the CIS. Most teams are reliant on university funds while the Rams are almost fully self-funded through initiatives like the 50-50 draw at Saskatchewan Roughriders games. The Rams don’t even share the same name as the rest of the U of R’s teams and uses its own board of directors to determine the direction of the club.
“I think we had to work extra hard to fit in and still maybe do because of the uniqueness of our program,” said McCrystal. “It’s always a work in progress. The work part is making sure the lines of communication stay open and making sure there is always dialogue within our own university as well as the conference and the country. We have to keep assuring them that we want to a part of this and need in part from their end to be assured that they would like us to be a part of this.”
Judging from Thursday’s win for McCrystal, that work has paid off.
