Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
In sports, as in life, they say you should never kick a man while he’s down.
Apparently no one informed the Calgary Stampeders about that little tidbit, as they kicked their way to a 30-16 win over the Toronto Argonauts in their season opener on Canada Day.
The Argonauts are as down as a team can get these days — boasting a CFL worst 7-29 record over the last two seasons. Nevertheless, Toronto held the Stampeders to just one offensive touchdown last week, despite a 500 yard performance from Calgary’s offence.
Of course, that doesn’t mean much when the Stamps can rely on the right boot of rookie kicker Rob Maver to chip in more than half their offence.
Maver — in the first CFL game of his career — was near perfect, hitting five of his six field goal attempts, including three in the fourth quarter when the game was still very much on the line. In all, Maver would contribute 18 of the Stampeders’ 30 points and send the Argos back to the drawing board questioning their ‘bend but don’t break’ philosophy for the week three rematch between the two teams.
CFL debut or not, the standout performance was all in a day’s work for a 24-year-old kicker who feels he’s taking just the first step in a lengthy career.
“I’m looking forward to earning my stripes in this league — I want to have a 20-year career like Lui Passaglia did,” Maver said, referring to the former BC Lions kicker and all-time CFL leading scorer.
That’s a tall comparison, considering Passaglia — who played in 408 games over his remarkable 25-year CFL career — is widely regarded as the best kicker in CFL history, topping the CFL’s all-time leader boards in virtually every kicking category there is.
CFL purists will no doubt assert that there will only ever be one Lui Passaglia but the Stampeders’ coaching staff certainly think Maver has the mental and physical makeup to take a run at a long career in Canada’s league.
“Consistency is what defines a great professional. With Rob, if he brings it and has the right attitude every day, then I don’t have any worries about him,” Stampeders special teams coordinator Mark Kilam said.
Calgary should hope they’ve found Passaglia’s second coming in Maver— they used their first round pick in the 2010 CFL entry draft to select the Brampton, ON native fifth overall before any other team could steal him away.
Couple Maver’s high draft selection with the fact he’s replacing former Stampeder Sandro DeAngelis — who was second in the CFL in 2009 with an 85.7 field goal percentage — and it’s easy to understand if Maver were to stumble out of the gates under the stress placed on his young shoulders.
So Rob, feeling the pressure much?
“You know, a lot of people have been asking me that,” Maver said with a chuckle.
“I think that if you let things like that get to you, then it’s going to be a really self destructive thought process. I’ve really shut it out of my mind as far as where I was picked in the draft and who I’m replacing. If I let those things weigh on me it’s going to be a very long season mentally.”
That mental toughness and ability to remain impervious to pressure and stress was a big factor that encouraged Calgary to select Maver so high.
There are plenty of kickers who can slot field goals with ease on the practice field — but finding a kicker whose mental makeup allows him to block out the cranium crushing pressure of performing under the lights in the CFL is rare.
“When we started to look at Rob Maver in the off season, that’s the one thing that I truly felt about him — that he was mentally ready to make the jump to the next level,” Kilam said. “He understands he needs to continually improve and be consistent with his game and that’s the mindset that he has.”
Of course, a little mechanical tweaking during the offseason didn’t hurt Maver’s case either.
Maver has run the gauntlet of training sessions and mini camps with kicking specialists and professionals across the continent in the past few months — a circuit that has been integral to the development of the young kicker.
It all started at Guelph University where he worked under the tutelage of head coach and kicking specialist Kyle Walters, who was hired this year as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ special teams coordinator.
He was successful on 13 of his 14 field goal attempts with Guelph in 2009 and finished second in the country in punting, averaging 41.3 yards per punt.
“A lot of what I did at Guelph was pretty similar to how things operate here. It was good because when I came into camp there wasn’t much of an adjustment.” Maver said.
After graduating from Guelph, Maver hopped on a flight to Scottsdale, AZ for a session with kicking guru Gary Zauner who also coached Maver in 2009 before his standout season at Guelph.
“Gary is an incredible coach. He taught me how to be a lot more consistent, how to train, when to work what drills, how to pace yourself throughout the week,” Maver said. “He really helped me learn how to be a professional — they were very valuable sessions.”
After returning to Canada to settle the minor business of becoming just the fourth kicker ever selected in the first round of the CFL draft, Maver was back on a plane to Atlanta where he took part in the Atlanta Falcons minicamp.
“That was really cool,” Maver said of the surprise NFL invite which came in part because Falcons general manager Tom Dimitroff is a Guelph alumnus himself.
“It was a really good learning experience. It was a great way to get my feet wet before coming into Stampeders camp.”
Needless to say, it’s been a busy few months for Maver, who will make his first trip as a pro to boisterous Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton Saturday afternoon when his Stampeders take on the Tiger-Cats.
What’s his focus with so much going on around him? Maver insists it’s just one kick at a time.
“In the CFL there’s so much importance on every single kick but I’m really comfortable with where I’m at right now,” Maver said.
“My process right now is to just focus on that next kick. I’m always keeping that next kick in mind.”
