More than just a football game

Two black head coaches in same CIS match a 'significant moment'
By Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald


RACE HASN’T DEFINED the lives of Gary Waterman or Leroy Blugh.

But both agree the historical significance of two black head coaches in the same CIS football game is worth noting.

It happens Saturday afternoon in Antigonish when Blugh, a defensive lineman for 15 seasons in the CFL, brings his Bishop’s Gaiters into Oland Stadium for a game against Gary Waterman’s undefeated St. Francis Xavier X-Men.

The 43-year-old Blugh, who was born in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and moved to Canada at the age of five, became the first black head coach in CIS football when his alma mater elevated him from assistant coach to the top job in 2005.

The 41-year-old Waterman, an Ontario native who taught and coached in Mississauga for 13 years, was the defensive coordinator for three seasons under John Bloomfield until Bloomfield was dumped at the end of last season. Waterman, a StFX graduate and former X-Men football captain and all-star, was a popular choice to replace Bloomfield within the X-Men community and he’s delivered on and off the field.

"I think it’s a significant moment," Waterman said Tuesday. "When I first got the job and I looked down the road at the schedule … I knew it was something that, as we got closer to it, would be historic."

"Yes I have thought about it and I think it’s great," Blugh said. "There has been a great presence of black athletes in the CIS sports in general, and in football, and I’m just very glad to see that now we’re having more black coaches in football. I think it’s a natural progression. Hopefully we’re opening some doors for some other black coaches."

Ironically, the two men haven’t met face to face. Blugh called Waterman to congratulate him when he won the StFX job and looks forward to their first meeting this weekend.

Waterman’s hiring was widely hailed among black players on the X-Men roster as a significant step forward for those who might want to follow in his footsteps one day.

Both coaches agree that their ascendency into head coach jobs makes a statement to young black athletes.

"Maybe they want to become a head coach, maybe not, but I guess the message would be that no matter what you want to do the door can be opened and you have opportunities," said Waterman, a father of three who left his teaching job in the Antigonish area to replace Bloomfield.

"I’ve had some black people tell me how proud they are. It means something to them."

Blugh doesn’t remember young black players even thinking about becoming coaches when he played at Bishop’s. But he said more black players competing in Canadian university football today can only lead to more seeing coaching as a viable career path.

"When you coach in the CIS you are an educator, and it’s a great field of work," he said.

Waterman said he never thought much about being a CIS head coach during his playing days, but always knew he wanted to mentor students and athletes. He never saw race as an impediment to anything he chose to do.

"In my journey I’ve never experienced someone saying I couldn’t do something," he said. "In fact it’s been quite the opposite here (at StFX). They were encouraging me to go for it."

He said he was "humbled" by the support he got from players on the X-Men right from the start.

"Sometimes you just go about your business … and you don’t realize that probably deep down have more of an impact on other people than you think."