The Saskatchewan Roughriders left Regina International Airport on Runway 13, overcame a 13-point deficit the following day, and enlivened the figurative 13th Fan in the process.
By the time the triumphant team landed in Regina early on a Monday morning, 39 hours and 41 minutes had elapsed since Saturday’s wheels-up departure.
A mere 7.6 per cent of that time had been consumed by Sunday’s 181-minute CFL game between the Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Here is the story of the other 92.4 per cent.
THE FLIGHT: REGINA TO HAMILTON
WestJet Flight 9534, a charter, had been booked several months ago by Director of Football Operations Jordan Greenly.
“WestJet is a fantastic partner,” Greenly says. “As soon as the schedule comes out, we usually get something over to them right away. They’ll start working on pricing pre-Christmas, even, and then they’ll usually circle back with me right after Christmas or in mid-January.
“Then you’ve got to finalize buses off of that. At some times, there’s six or seven bus rides for every two plane rides.”
Consider the two airport-bound buses that are parked outside Mosaic Stadium on Saturday morning, when a travelling party of 76 is packed and ready to go.
As the players, coaches, management and support staff walk toward the buses, Blake Tiedeman (Digital Media Producer) and Morgan Fleury (Digital Media Co-ordinator) shoot photos and videos of the passengers.
Running back A.J. Ouellette, in a chipper mood, asks to borrow Fleury’s camera and jokingly snaps a few photos. Knowing a gift when he sees one, Tiedeman takes video that highlights, yet again, the fun side of Ouellette.
“I like to say we have plans in place for the ideas and visions that we have, but the A.J. one was spur of the moment and we rolled with it,” Tiedeman says.
Looking out the window, Head Coach Corey Mace watches the impromptu video session with amusement. He boarded the bus at 7:45 a.m., in adherence to his oft-stated philosophy: “If you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re five minutes late.”
Once everyone is on the buses, the short trip to the airport begins. A few players and coaches are chatting. Some of them are listening to music. Others are looking at their phones. Quarterback Trevor Harris, for example, is enjoying a video of his one-year-old son, Tripp, playing on a swing.
Within minutes, the Roughriders are at the airport. The buses park a couple of first downs east of the plane. At the bottom of the stairs, friendly flight attendants offer snacks, such as apple slices, and invariably warm greetings.
Seating is assigned, but everyone knows the drill, anyway.
Front-row seats are occupied by Mace, Craig Reynolds (President-CEO) and Jeremy O’Day (Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager).
The assistant coaches occupy the next few rows, followed by employees that are responsible for athletic therapy, equipment, strength and conditioning, communications and video/analytics.
The rest of the seats are for the players. Throughout the plane, the middle seat is vacant.
“I think it’s cool how everybody sits in the same seats everywhere,” receiver Shawn Bane Jr. says.
Crucially, the pilot and co-pilot are at the front of the aircraft, which leaves Runway 13 at 8:58 a.m., and gradually ascends to 37,000 feet.
Mace is in Seat 1D, wearing wireless earbuds and immersed in thought.
“On the plane, I try to take my mind off the actual game and feed it with something else,” he says.
“Sometimes it’s music and looking at pictures of my family. Or sometimes, like today, I was reading a bit on leadership and how that could help our team going forward.
“Once tomorrow hits, or maybe later tonight, my mind won’t be off the game, so I try to take a little time for myself to enjoy things that I like to do outside the game. Other than that, there’s not that much time, so I try to enjoy it while I can.”
ARRIVAL IN HAMILTON
Following a two-hour 25-minute flight, two more buses await the team. Most of the Roughriders’ delegation is to head directly to the hotel, but Tim Hortons Field is a destination for a few green-clad individuals.
Mace, Harris and Bane Jr. are shuttled to the stadium for media interviews. Tiedeman, Arielle Zerr (Director of Communications) and Dave Thomas (CKRM’s voice of the Roughriders) are part of that process.
There is also the imperative of setting up the Roughriders’ (temporary) dressing room. Hence the need for Gordon Gilroy (Equipment Manager), Ty Robinson (Assistant Equipment Manager), Dalton Clarke (Athletic Therapist) and Brooke Kosolofski (Assistant Athletic Therapist) to make a beeline for Tim Hortons Field.
“Day 1 of practice is when we start organizing this,” Gilroy says during a rare respite. “We have to line up somebody to take the gear to the charter and then somebody, once we land, to take it from the Hamilton airport to the stadium.
“Then we unload it and we have to start the set-up. We start polishing the helmets and set up the locker room and make sure it looks good and go from there.
“There’s a lot of gear — close to 7,500 or 8,000 pounds. Depending on the weather and whether it’s going to rain, the size of the gear could increase, because you have to bring so much more stuff. It’s crazy, the amount of gear we have to bring.
“I don’t think people have any concept of how much stuff comes on the road with us. You have to be prepared for any situation, like players’ needs and coaches’ needs.
“If someone’s got a helmet failure, we’ve got extra helmets. We’ve got extra shoulder pads. You could almost play two games before heading home.”
Two facets of the football-operations department are required to make this work efficiently — or at all, for that matter.
“We have to work as a team,” Gilroy says. “We couldn’t do it without the trainers. They help us out so much.
“We’re quite a well-oiled machine. We’ve done it long enough now. It takes us about two hours to set up.”
Within the first hour, the pre-game interviews are finished. Mace, Harris, Bane Jr., Zerr, Tiedeman and Thomas are ready to head to the hotel.
While exiting the stadium, they happen to walk past the Tiger-Cats’ cheer/dance team, which is practising a routine.
“Go … Riders! Go … Riders!” Harris, whose mother Suzanne is a dance instructor, says while lightheartedly emulating a few of the cheerleaders’ moves.
Everyone, regardless of allegiances, has a good laugh.
STAYING IN STEELTOWN
All the players and coaches arrive at the hotel more than a full day ahead of Sunday’s kickoff, which is scheduled for 7 p.m., Hamilton time.
“For me,” Harris says, “I can’t wait to get up to my room and relax and get off my feet.”
Harris had been off his feet on the plane, but he was hardly relaxing. He used the time above the clouds to immerse himself in preparation.
“I watch a little game film, just to see if I can pick up anything new,” he says. “But by the time this day comes, I’ve seen enough film and I feel confident in what their defence could do.
“You dig up things they’ve done in the past or look at how they’ve defended myself as a quarterback or offences of similar nature.
“You’ve seen enough film. You’ve seen what the looks are. Ultimately, it’s about going out there and trusting your eyes, listening to your feet, and letting it rip.”
Just how prepared is Harris, anyway?
“Trev already knows how long the ride is from when we land to getting to the hotel,” Bane Jr. says with a laugh.
“It’s crazy because I guess I don’t really need to know. We’ll get there when we get there.
“Then there are the dinner nuances, such as ‘who do you link with to go eat?’ or ‘what are you eating?’ There is the preparation for the game.
“And what are you doing? Are you stretching? Are you just drinking water? Are you doing nothing or watching games at night? I enjoy all of it and I don’t take it for granted.”
Every player has a slightly different agenda, especially in light of the flexible Saturday evening schedule.
“I’m one of the weird guys on the team,” Harris says. “I don’t go out to dinner. I’ll walk to go get my food, pick it up, and walk back to my room. I’m in my room all night.”
The television, however, is an afterthought. He has a very deliberate agenda for a supposed night off.
“I’ll get on my ARP,” says Harris, who credits the portable electrical stimulation device for his remarkable recovery from a knee injury that sidelined him for the final 13 games of last season.
“I get in my Bible and I pray. I talk to my family and really just go low-key. I’ll go through the call sheet and those sorts of things.
“I’m hydrating and eating and just getting ready for the next day.”
GEARING UP ON GAME DAY
To quote former Head Coach Ken Miller: “Good morning, Riders!”
Game day has arrived.
“You don’t really sleep as well the night before a game, typically,” Harris notes. “If it’s a night game, I’m for sure getting a game-day nap — under 30 minutes, or for 90 minutes, because of the sleep cycle.
“Aside from that, I wake up, eat a light breakfast, and then I don’t eat the rest of the day, just because I don’t want anything in my stomach.
“You get those butterfly nerves going on but, to me, it’s just about getting the best night of sleep that you can and then getting a nap if it’s a night game. If it’s a day game, not so much.
“I just go through the call sheet once again and kind of visualize. I’ll maybe even watch a few highlights of our team, just to get myself in the right frame of mind.
“For a lot of things, I work with my mental performance coach, Dr. Chantale Lussier, and she does a great job of giving me mental strategic things to do on game days.”
A pre-game meal is available at the hotel for a three-hour period, beginning at 12:30 p.m.
Chapel, for those who wish to participate, commences at 1:30.
“It’s obviously a huge thing for me,” Harris says. “That’s my Number 1 in terms of priorities in my life — my faith and my family.
“I always go to chapel and make sure I’m staying in the good book and getting prayed up before games.”
Meanwhile, members of the equipment and training staff are preparing for another early excursion to Tim Hortons Field.
Mayer understands the road-trip regimen better than most.
Before joining the Roughriders in 2023, he spent 26 years as an athletic therapist in the Western Hockey League and logged more than 1,500 regular-season games — or 7,500-some visits to opposing rinks with the Regina Pats or Moose Jaw Warriors.
Mayer, truly a road Warrior, estimates that the accumulated bus miles would have taken him around the Equator 30 times. With that in mind, he is especially appreciative of the wonders of aviation.
“The flight to Hamilton was two hours and 25 minutes,” he says. “You wouldn’t even get from Regina to Prince Albert in 2:25. It’s like going to the SaskTel Centre.”
Mayer is sitting in the hotel lobby, along with Gilroy, Robinson, Kosolofski and Clarke. They are waiting for another early ride to the stadium, where everything must be in place by the time the players arrive.
“The equipment managers have it way worse than us,” Mayer says. “We’ve got our trunks and bags and things for the players. For us, it’s about making sure we get what we need for our medical trunks. Then it’s a matter of helping them out.
“There’s only two of them on the road and three of us, so we went down yesterday and Brooke was setting up the tape and stuff and Dalton and I helped unpack bags and trunks and stuff. We try to help them out as much as possible.
“After games, it’s a little tough, because you’re dealing with injuries after, so a guy might want to see a doctor or see us. We don’t have as much time to help them after a game, but we try our best.”
The players have the option of leaving for the stadium on the early bus (scheduled to depart at 3 p.m.) or the late bus (4 p.m.). The coaches typically get to the stadium as early as possible.
Hour by hour, minute by minute, the time ticks away until the game — the reason why everyone is here.
TIME FOR TIM HORTONS
The first bus leaves precisely at 3 p.m. and arrives 13 minutes later.
A fan is waiting to greet the team outside the stadium. Ouellette chats with the admirer for a few minutes before heading to the dressing room.
Before too long, there are Mace’s paces. The Head Coach walks several laps of the playing field, immersed in thought, while taking the occasional break to greet old friends.
Harris is among the first players to hit the field. Near the 55-yard line, he performs a customized walk-through, going through an array of drop-back options and looking left, right and centre.
Tiedeman and Fleury are already on the scene, capturing a variety of images that are to appear on the team’s various platforms.
“There are times on the bus ride over when I’ll see something that inspires me,” Tiedeman says. “Maybe a player dresses a certain way and I can focus on his shoes or different things he’s wearing. Maybe someone will be playing a song that kind of sparks an idea.”
The division of labour, which can vary from game to game, calls for Tiedeman to handle the video and Fleury to concentrate on still photography.
“On the road, guys really take in the away atmosphere,’’ Tiedeman says. “I always try to capture a lot of that to show fans that, ‘Hey, we’re here,’ and there’s that business aspect of guys walking in.
“It’s kind of cool, too, for our fans to see our players in a different element. So many fans come to our games and see them there. If we can show them in a different locker room or walking out on to a different field, that gives fans that behind-the-scenes look and almost makes them feel like they’re there.”
The themes can be as varied as the locations.
“Our ideas and the things we produce are different from week to week,” Tiedeman says. “If you look at our Instagram posts from Week 1 in Edmonton, they’re already different from Week 2 in Hamilton.
“We come up with different content, even though it serves the same purpose to show the behind-the-scenes and our players travelling.”
The scheduled on-field preparation begins at 5:45 p.m., when the “early outs” start going through their routines. By then, the gates have just opened, so fans are trickling into the stadium.
A few of them make their way to Row 1, near the tunnel that leads to and from the Roughriders’ dressing room.
Many players have relatives or friends who reside in Ontario or just south of the Canada/U.S. border. As a result, every eastern excursion doubles as a mini-reunion.
For example, Tom and Suzanne Harris — Trevor’s parents — have made the six-hour drive from Waldo, Ohio.
Defensive back Godfrey Onyeka, from Brampton, Ont., will have a cheering section that exceeds 25.
Then there are Ontario-based members of Rider Nation who seize every opportunity to attend a road game that features their beloved green team.
“The fans’ travelling is insane,” marvels Bane Jr., who played with the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats and Calgary Stampeders before joining the Roughriders in 2023.
“At my college, they would do that. In Calgary, you might have a section here or there. But the flux with which people come to see us, it’s crazy, so it’s always fun to play in front of them.”
The play begins at 7:08 p.m.
HEADING HOME
Brett Lauther’s game-winning, 43-yard walk-off field goal split the uprights at 10:09 p.m.
Lauther capped the Roughriders’ comeback from deficits of 20-7 (halftime) and 30-20 (5½ minutes left in the game).
“We’ve got a group that’s just flat-out ‘don’t flinch,’ baby!” Harris exclaims shortly after finishing the game with 390 passing yards.
“Never flinch … ever!”
The victory celebration is captured by Tiedeman, who also zooms in on Jameer Thurman — an erstwhile Tiger-Cat.
“We were up and down all game,” the Roughriders’ middle linebacker tells his teammates. “We were fighting. We gave up big plays but, at the end, we got stops when we needed it.
“And this guy, back-to-back games, closing out games … C.J.!”
Thurman presents a game ball to fellow linebacker C.J. Avery, whose interception with 33 seconds left set up Lauther’s climactic kick.
Eight days earlier — also at 14:27 of the fourth quarter — Avery had registered his first CFL interception to effectively cement the outcome as the Roughriders won 29-21 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
“I said last week that it’s a blessing to be here and it’s a blessing to go to work every day,” Avery says amid the jubilation. “I enjoy every moment of it.
“We’re going to continue to keep this thing rolling. We’re going to clean up the mistakes and keep going 1-and-0 each week.”
Avery is soon directed by Zerr to a laptop computer that will enable a Zoom interview to be conducted with representatives of Regina-based media outlets.
Harris and Mace also field questions before hurrying to one of the two buses that are destined for the Hamilton airport.
Meanwhile, the athletic therapy team is tending to injured players — as is a travelling team physician, Dr. Jordan Anderson.
Gilroy, Robinson and anyone else who is available to help are packing away the equipment into bags, bags and more bags, the cumbersome trunks having become past tense.
“We can get cleaned up in 45 minutes,” Gilroy says. “We leave it as we found it.”
Outside the stadium, Greenly directs sundry Roughriders employees to the first bus, which is about to leave for the airport.
Whether it’s a bus, an airplane, a hotel suite or a meeting room, the people who are followed so devotedly by members of the fan base are in a “self-contained bubble,” in the words of Mayer.
The bubble includes 76 passengers on the way to Hamilton and 77 en route back to Regina. The plus-one is Assistant General Manager Kyle Carson, who headed east a little early to celebrate his sister’s graduation from the University of Guelph. On Friday, Shea Carson received a Bachelor of Science degree (with distinction) in Environmental Sciences.
The next day, Kyle Carson visited with coaches from the University of Guelph Gryphons football program before making his way to Hamilton in time for Sunday’s game.
As a capper, another Guelph grad — Kian Schaffer-Baker — caught two touchdown passes for the Roughriders in Hamilton.
His second scoring snag, with 43 seconds left in the fourth quarter, was followed by Lauther’s game-tying convert.
Then came Avery’s interception, Lauther’s game-winner and, eventually, a tranquil and turbulence-free ride home.
The Roughriders landed in Regina on Monday at 1:39 a.m., Saskatchewan time — 5½ hours after the clock struck 0:00 at Tim Hortons Field.
Game’s end signalled the beginning of the final leg of the Green and White’s latest business trip.
Most people who travel for vocational purposes go from Point A to Point B, and back again, in virtual anonymity.
For a professional sports team, it is a different story. So much rides on a Riders road trip — a fraction of which is televised.
That 7.4 per cent, though, attracts 100 per cent of the attention from staunch supporters who proudly inhabit the city of Regina, the province of Saskatchewan, and a world-wide constituency known as Rider Nation.
“Sometimes you get lost in that when you’re in the thick of it,” Mace muses. “But there is always a time for myself — and also for some others, because we talk about it — when you do have that reflection about how grateful you are.
“It’s a game that has given us everything. Speaking to the Riders and what we mean to that fan base, and what that fan base means to us, it’s very important.
“We’re very grateful to be able to shut a province down when a game happens. It’s always good to have that mindset, too.
“If you’re in that tube with us, you’re a part of it. This is what we do.”
