The Champs Tour began with a hello and ended with a handoff.
“How’s everyone doing?” Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Brayden Lenius asked 19 of the CFL team’s most dedicated and generous fans Wednesday night at Mosaic Stadium.
“It’s amazing to have all of you here. You mean a lot to us.”
The franchise means so much to those who assembled on Wednesday that, in 2020, they had donated their season-ticket money back to the team — as opposed to having the payment refunded — to help it weather the financial devastation that was wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cancellation of an entire CFL season left the club with a multi-million-dollar revenue deficiency. But now that the Roughriders are preparing for their third post-COVID season, the organization is making a point of giving back to those who gave money back via the Champs Program.
An assortment of Champs Tours have been scheduled for the off-season. On Wednesday, Lenius was the tour guide for a one-hour visit to the Roughriders’ football-operations area.
The tour was such a big deal to Kris Cherewyk, a season-ticket holder since 2010, that he made the three-hour drive from Norquay to Regina on Wednesday. Upon arriving, he met up with his brother, James, at the stadium.
The coterie of Champs also included Rob Pyne, who was a defensive back with the Roughriders in 1972 and 1973. A long-time football coach in Regina, Pyne vividly remembers a time when the Roughriders played at Taylor Field and practised in the infield of a horse-racing track, situated near where the expansive Co-operators Centre arena complex now stands.
Mike Smith doesn’t go back that far, although he is nonetheless a long-time fan.
Smith, 42, has been attending Roughriders games since he was three, continuing a family tradition that also includes grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles.
The next generation is in good hands, too.
“What’s your name?” Lenius asked Smith’s nine-year-old son.
“Zack,” he responded while shaking hands with the 26-year-old pass-catcher.
“I’m Brayden,” Zack was told. “Nice to meet you.”
Carla Hoffort had met Lenius prior to Wednesday. Demonstratedly a fan, she wore a Roughriders jersey that included Lenius’s previous number (19). He wore his current number (84) while conducting the tour.
Hoffort — a regular at Roughriders games for 40 years — was accompanied on Wednesday by a relative, Maureen Ulrich, who drove in from Lampman for the Champs Tour.
She, like everyone, was quickly impressed with Lenius.
“Incredible,” Ulrich marvelled. “You can tell that he is really invested in being here and understands what a privilege it is to be here every day.”
That understanding was underlined when the group visited the players’ lounge, which is located a few first downs away from the locker room.
On the east wall of the lounge, it is impossible to miss the message: IT IS AN HONOUR AND PRIVILEGE TO PLAY, COACH AND WORK FOR THE SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS.
“We’re spoiled,” Lenius acknowledged. “The team does so much for us.
“You don’t even have to think. You just have to show up and play football.”
Or, as the situation dictates, show up for a tour.
At the outset, the group strolled through the hallways and took a peek at the coaches’ offices and the workspaces of employees such as Jeremy O’Day, the General Manager and Vice-President and Football Operations.
Then it was off to the meeting rooms. Each position group has its own, state-of-the-art area in which players can gather and plug in their iPads.
One particularly popular stop on the tour was the football-operations auditorium, where the team meets as a group.
The auditorium can also be used less formally, outside of the daily agenda, for movie nights — which foster camaraderie and enable the players to unwind during the long and gruelling football season.
The rigours of the game become evident when visitors mill around the Ivan Gutfriend Training Room — named in honour of someone who was a Roughriders athletic therapist for 38 years.
There are offices for team doctors and chiropractors, along with treatment tables and sundry forms of equipment and supplies that enable players to deal with injuries or simply the inevitable wear and tear that results from playing a physical sport for a living.
The calibre of the facilities is such that Regina Pats star Connor Bedard and his teammates routinely make the short walk from the Brandt Centre to Mosaic Stadium to take advantage of the available expertise and equipment. Greg Mayer, who was hired as the Pats’ athletic therapist in 2004, recently left the WHL team to join the Roughriders.
Although the training and medical resources are nice to have, the players would rather spend time in the locker room. That they do, whether the area is used functionally or even recreationally.
There is evidence, for example, of a cornhole tournament of which the players are especially fond.
The locker-room stalls offer plenty of elbow and storage room — especially when compared to the cramped confines to which Pyne was accustomed when he played for the Roughriders 50-plus years ago.
“This is about the same as our locker room under the old grandstand,” Pyne quipped.
Old Taylor Field, which was re-named Mosaic Stadium in 2006, was the Roughriders’ home through the 2016 CFL season. The Green and White played its first regular-season game in its current confines on July 1, 2017.
“When they were designing the stadium, they took a tour of the (NFL) facilities down south,” Lenius noted. “They took little pieces of all of them and put them into this. We’ve got the best of everything.”
The best part of the Champs Tour? Judging by the response, that was the walk toward and through the tunnel that leads to the field.
“Bring ’Em Out!” a couple of visitors chanted in unison as the doors were opened and a darkened Mosaic Stadium became visible.
“Fun fact,” Lenius said, pointing toward the MaxTron at the south end of the stadium, above Pil Country. “The screen is bigger than an NBA basketball court. It doesn’t look that big from here, but it’s big.”
Regina being the city that springtime forgot, Lenius and the fans quickly returned to the great indoors, whereupon profuse and sincere thanks were offered.
“It starts with the community,” Lenius told the Champs tourists. “That’s how this team is built.
“Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that we’ll see you all in the stands and that you’ll give us a nice wave.”
For the time being, an appreciative round of applause would have to suffice.
Even then, the Champs Tour wasn’t completely over.
While everyone else headed upstairs, Lenius quietly took Mike and Zack Smith into the dressing room for one more look-see.
Lenius then handed his helmet to Zack, who tried it on. The youngster then sat in Lenius’s locker-room stall, just to the left of where quarterback Trevor Harris will be situated, and posed for father/son/slotback photos.
That being done, it appeared that the Champs Tour had concluded.
Nope. Hold on. One more thing.
Lenius returned to his locker, opened a cupboard, and performed the aforementioned handoff — giving a football to an awestruck Zack.
“He won’t let that one go,” a proud father said. “He’ll be sleeping with it.”
With that, the Champs Tour had indeed reached the finish line. Lenius had gone far beyond the call of duty while guiding everyone through the facilities. Very soon, the show-and-tell would be Zack’s responsibility.
Clutching the gift from Lenius to his chest, demonstrating an appreciation for ball security, Zack turned to his father and said: “I’m going to take it to school!”
