Kelly Bates
CFL.ca
Over one’s life, a person can receive advice from an assortment of people. Family, teachers, and coaches can often have the greatest influence on a young person’s perception of the world. As is life, some is good, some is bad, and some is irrelevant. As a college student at the great institution known affectionately across the country as the U, or for the numbered few that do not recognize the school as so, the University of Saskatchewan had many a great influence on me ranging from professors through to my football coaches.
One said coach always seemed to have a quote to apply to any given situation and while many of them have stuck with me, there has always been one particular piece of advice that has stuck in my mind, that being, “It is not how you hold yourself when you are at the top but how you hold yourself when you are on the bottom that truly defines your character.”
Well if that is true, and I believe it is, then it must also hold true to the overall character of an entire team. We seem to be facing something of a crisis out here in Lions land. I have been here for 7 years now and this is the worst record we have had at this point of the season since 2002 when we started that season 1-6. Even though our record does not support my beliefs, I truly believe that the 2008 version of our team is one of the best teams I have been a part of. I base that not only on the amount of talent we have in our dressing room but, at this juncture, more importantly on the amount of character and leadership we have in our locker room.
In relative terms, often players and coaches will reference the CFL season to a marathon as opposed to a sprint. That sprint reference will especially get thrown around when a team starts out the season with a couple of losses. I believe the season is a marathon, a war of attrition, if you will, but if that is true then the back half of the marathon will have to be a full out sprint for our team.
Labour Day has signalled that the back half of the marathon has started. Based on our current record and place in our division and the CFL, that being the very bottom of the West Division and tied with Toronto with the 5th best record in the CFL, we will now truly see what kind of character we have as a team when this weekend’s game in Hamilton starts the sprint to the finish of the regular season.
Kelly Bates has been a regular starter along the BC Lions’ offensive line since 2003. He was a 2007 CFL All-Star and played his 100th career game in Week 3.
