Peter Dyakowski
CFL.ca
Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of my CFL.ca blog. It is an honour to follow in the footsteps of many notable contributors to the website, both past and present, including former Tiger-Cats great Jeff Piercy.
I have been remiss in not writing this missive sooner but my busy in-season schedule has prevented me from doing so. What little free time I have in a day after my football-related duties have been fulfilled has so far been consumed with the consulting work I’ve been doing for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
They really would be quite lost without me so I hope they don’t mind me taking this short break.
I begin my blogging journey this season by turning the spotlight away from myself (the glare can become too much at times, even for me) and onto some of the unsung heroes of this league.
I am speaking, in this case, of our various clubs’ Directors of Community Relations and Media Relations, or whatever they call themselves in their respective offices. These are the men and women who are most chiefly responsible for engaging their clubs’ communities at a deeper level between, and sometimes on, game-days.
Even through the off-season, they work tirelessly scheduling events and player appearances with charitable organizations, community groups, and suchlike (we don’t do birthdays).
Shawn Burke, of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, stands as a shining exemplar among the League’s Community Relations personnel. Many of us Tiger-Cats dream lofty dreams of helping our community and giving back to Hamilton.
Shawn turns these dreams into a harsh, back-breaking reality of early morning school breakfast visits and hypocritical lectures to middle school gymnasiums on not eating potato chips. Though the schedule is grueling (not so much for “Burkey” but for his players, whom he treats as chattel slaves) the City and people of Hamilton benefit, and that is the important thing.
This wonderful arrangement is repeated, team by team, throughout the League, to the great benefit of all the Canadian cities and their surrounding areas so blessed as to have CFL teams.
It would be impossible without people like Shawn Burke and the following people whom I have never met but assume are worthy of mention in this prestigious blog: Jaime Cartmell(BC), Mitch Bayliss(CAL), Dave Jamieson(EDM), Ryan Whippler(SSK), Darren Cameron(WPG), Beth Waldmen(TOR), and Charles Rooke(MTL).
Know that, though you may hassle us to no end and wrongly accuse us of being habitually late, we players do appreciate your work, as do the countless other people whose lives you touch.
