Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
Tiger-Cats defensive backs Will Poole and Jason Shivers are used to working together towards a common goal. Except now instead of anticipating routes and blanketing receivers, they’ll be doing inventory and calculating payroll.
Poole and Shivers have turned their friendship into a business relationship, creating SPS, which stands for Superior Professional Services.
“It’s a commercial cleaning service, doing both commercial and residential sites,” said Poole.
“It’s something we’ve been thinking about since last year, trying to transition into our life after football,” he added.
In a career where foresight is a must, the opportunity to use their celebrity to promote the business is something that was too good to pass up.
“I wanted to take the resources and connections I gained playing football and use it to the best of my ability,” said Poole.
Will and Jason met by chance while trying to carve out a niche for themselves in the CFL and found that they came from similar backgrounds and held similar values.
“We met in Toronto, they were trying him out and I was injured at the time so we both were kind of behind the scenes trying to get our careers going,” said Shivers.
“We just clicked,” said Poole. “We both played in the Pac-10 and we found that we had similar values as far as family, honesty and loyalty.”
After spending almost two seasons with the Argos, when free agency came around it seemed like an easy choice to move down the QEW to Hamilton.
“I think this team really took a big step last year, so that really inspired us as far as our decision-making process,” said Shivers.
“Some other teams were calling us but we wanted to go to the team that had the best opportunity to win a Grey Cup,” added Poole.
“I felt like Hamilton was just a couple of pieces away and that Jason and I are those pieces to take the team to the next level,” he said.
After playing for a number of teams, becoming established players in this league and experiencing different levels of success, both players feel as if the time is now to start focusing on the ultimate goal; winning a championship.
“If you’re not coming in here with that mindset and goal of winning a Grey Cup then this probably isn’t the team for you to be on,” said Poole.
