Donnavan Carter sees opportunities on the horizon with DIF program

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

Donnavan Carter has seen a lot of football in his day.

So when the former CFL linebacker says that the Diversity In Football Program, presented by Securian Canada, has provided even him with the opportunity to get new perspectives on things, that’s certainly saying something.

“This has been unique,” said Carter, who is embedded with the Saskatchewan Roughriders at their training camp in Saskatoon.

“It’s been real good, and it’s going too fast,” the associate head coach and special teams coordinator for the University of Guelph Gryphons added. “I actually wish I could stay here longer.”

Carter, who played seven seasons in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Ottawa Renegades, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, has been with the Gryphons since 2019 and has been coaching at the OUA level since 2011.

He’d crossed paths previously with current Roughriders head coach Corey Mace, the former defensive coordinator for the Argos, who annually hold training camp on the Guelph campus.

It’s been great to get reacquainted with Mace, said Carter, and especially so under different circumstances. At Argos’ camp, Carter attended informally, as more of an observer, really.

Under the sponsorship of the Diversity In Football Program, he’s much more involved this time around.

“I’m helping with practice prep more so than I’ve done in the past,” said Carter. “Helping with personnel. Having the freedom to kind of pitch in where needed has not always been the case. So this experience has been great.”

The Diversity in Football Program, now in its fourth year, has been designed to open new doors for people from diverse cultural backgrounds, perhaps leading to acceleration as they make their way along their chosen football career path or maybe even leading to an entirely new trajectory within the game.

Along with Carter, there are four others taking part in the Diversity In Football Program at West Division training camps; Strength and conditioning coach Karen Ashley Garcia is with the Edmonton Elks, athletic therapist Jamila Abrams is with the BC Lions, coach Carlie Manners has joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and coach Tyler Scott is in Calgary, with the Stampeders.

For Scott, it’s been a blast to be at camp with the hometown side he grew up adoring. And he has been keenly, gratefully, soaking up all that he can during his stay with the team.

Donnavan Carter is participant in training camp with the Riders as part of the Diversity in Football Program (Riderville.com)

“They’ve been an open book,” said Scott of the Stampeders. “And, you know, it’s really been great for a youth coach, like myself, to come in and to learn at such a great level, at such a high level of football.”

Scott pulls double duty in coaching teams in Airdrie, Alberta. He’s been the defensive coordinator for George McDougall High School for three seasons, and is in his first year as DC for the Airdrie Raiders, a team comprised of young players between the ages of nine and 11.

Even though pro football is years removed from the youth players Scott coaches, he says he’s definitely picking up on messaging that he can bring to his own teams.

“The biggest thing that has come from this,” said Scott, “is how much the professionals focus on the fundamentals. They’re doing the fundamentals with just as much passion as they would the great things that they do in a game. And that’s what makes football players great.”

Scott is dipping his toes into all kinds of different waters at Stamps’ camp, and getting feedback from all sorts of angles.

For instance, he says he has learned a lot from Calgary’s Director Of Canadian Scouting And U.S. Scout, Dwayne Cameron, who has given the young coach some perspective on things outside the stripes.

“He’ll take some time and sit down with me and tell me about the little ins and outs of what it would take to be a professional coach, not necessarily on the field, but off the field,” said Scott, adding: “I have a lot of great mentors in this organization.”

Back in Saskatoon, Carter echoes those sentiments when talking about not just Mace, but of the entire Roughriders coaching crew and front office staff.

“I’ve definitely got my ears open with with Joshua Bell, the defensive backs coach,” said Carter, “and I’m just learning a lot from from the head coach, even the general manager (Jeremy O’Day), being in the personnel meetings, and how this program is being run from the top down.”

“Corey Mace is doing an amazing job, and it’s such a cohesive group in terms of the coaching staff. I feel like they’re working really well together.”

That kind of atmosphere can do a guest coach a lot of good and Carter can appreciate the opportunity to be immersed in it through a program that really gets its participants involved.

“I think you want to get around great coaches and get to know them,” the native of Toronto said. “But even more, have them get to know you. In that way, perhaps, opportunities could be on the horizon.”

“I’ve been able to really get entrenched and commit to it wholeheartedly and get really, really in there and dug in,” Carter added. “And that’s where I think you really get the most out of it.”

In Calgary, Scott finds himself in complete agreement about what the Diversity in Football Program can provide.

Asked if he would recommend it to others, he doesn’t hesitate.

“Oh, a hundred per cent,” he replied, enthusiastically.

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