Day 2 Diary: “The friendliest, nicest thing that’s ever happened” — the British Invasion of Riderville
Anatomy of a Friday (and early Saturday) …
7:30 a.m.
The alarm goes off — and is promptly crushed with a fist. It is 4:30 a.m., back home in Saskatchewan, and nobody should be awake at this hour unless they are about to go to sleep. Let’s reset the alarm, at the not-inconsiderable risk of resetting my career trajectory.
8:46 a.m.
A productive day? That’s snooze to me! But I had better tumble out of bed, somehow, in order to make it to the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation Breakfast Social.
The event is being held at the Lord Nelson Hotel and Suites. According to Google Maps, the hotel is 1.3 kilometres from where I am staying. Should be a nice morning walk, right?
9:07 a.m.
WRONG!!! The first six minutes of the walk was uphill. As much I love Halifax, which is a beautiful city, I miss the flatlands as I attempt to scale Duke Street.
9:13 a.m.
I am (gasp!) at the (inhale) intersection (huff) of Duke Street (puff) and Brunswick Street (oxygen!) and am about to bid farewell to my hamstrings and (gassssssssp) lungs.
Why didn’t I call Uber?
At this rate, I should make it to the breakfast nicely in time for supper.
9:27 a.m.
Arrival at the hotel, which turns 95 in October. My hamstrings just turned 114.
9:28 a.m.
Jonathan Halvorson, the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation’s Development Manager, is MC’ing the breakfast.
Jon is young, well-spoken, instantly likeable, ridiculously competent and he can dunk a basketball.
After shamelessly helping myself to the breakfast buffet, I look like I swallowed the basketball.
9:34 a.m.
“This event actually started at 5 a.m., Saskatchewan time,” Roughriders President-CEO Craig Reynolds tells the attendees, “and I know for a fact that many of you did not go to bed early last night.”
(Confidential aside: Please don’t let Craig know that I arrived at the breakfast 88 minutes later than planned. We trust each other, right? We’re good? Whew! Thank you.)
9:37 a.m.
Cindy Fuchs, the Foundation’s Executive Director, speaks for a few minutes. Cindy is impossibly nice. How lucky am I to be able to work with people of this calibre?
The word from Cindy is that the Foundation has given back $1.8 million to the province since being established in 2019.
The Foundation’s three pillars: Amateur football, health and education.
(My alleged legs still feel like two pillars after the trek up Duke Street.)
10:11 a.m.
An autographed Kian Schaffer-Baker jersey is raffled off.
It turns out that the winner — Karen Kuzyk — is seated a mere six feet away from the phenomenally popular Roughriders receiver.
Kian simply turns and hands the jersey to Karen.
Wouldn’t it be nice if life was always that simple? (See again: Duke Street.)
10:31 a.m.
Leaving the hotel, I run into Mark Habicht (Director, Retail Operations), Kim Gallagher (Director, Talent Management and People Operations) and Jacqueline Hurlbert (Director, Marketing and Fan Engagement.)
We go for a lovely walk through the Public Garden, which is simply beautiful.
While hurriedly waddling down South Park Street in a valiant attempt to be a mere 88 minutes late for the breakfast, I hadn’t even noticed the garden. How sad.
Obliviousness, it turns out, will be a theme for the day.
12:33 p.m.
Lunch at the Cable Wharf with Arielle Zerr (Director, Communications), Seth Strankman (Manager, Game Entertainment and Events), Jenn Senger (Director, Ticket Operations and Sales) and Carol Hoeving (Ticket Control Officer).
I could use an Appetite Control Officer right about now.
I spy clam chowder on the menu — for $18.
So what? I lovvvvvvvvve clam chowder.
Presuming it to be an appetizer, I also order a main course (spaghetti with clams).
The clam chowder soon arrives, to considerable clamour.
The bowl is so large, and the chowder so succulent, that Arielle and Jenn are immediately compelled to take photos.
As a bonus, the clam chowder includes pieces of bacon. Not the 98 strips of bacon that were ingested during the Foundation breakfast, but moderation is the key.
2:07 p.m.
OK, here’s my second (and hopefully last) misadventure of the day.
I am staying at a different hotel than the team. To get to the mid-afternoon walk-through at Saint Mary’s University’s Huskies Stadium, I am free to take the team bus, which will depart from in front of the other hotel.
I visit Google Maps, type in the name of the other hotel, and begin walking.
NOOOO! Another ascent up Duke Street!
My lungs burning, I turn right on Brunswick Street and keep following the instructions that are bleated over my phone via Google Maps’ audio function.
Then I hang another right. And another right.
I don’t see the team hotel anywhere — and I have been walking for 20 minutes.
Suddenly, I am back at the hotel in which I am registered. I have done a complete 360.
Where, oh where, is the team’s hotel?
(Well, it turns out that I walked right by it, but was so frustrated and flustered by that point that I missed the sign, even though it is likely visible from the moon.)
Anyway, I walk into my hotel lobby and ask the nice person at the front desk to call me a cab.
Silently, I wish she would respond with a thunderous “OK … you’re a cab!”
To my chagrin, she accommodates my request by calling for a taxi, which soon arrives. Off I go to Saint Mary’s University. This time, a car goes up the hill, and my legs are spared.
3:18 p.m.
Upon (finally) making it to the field, I explain the situation to Arielle, who can instantly diagnose and solve any problem I encounter. She is a marvel.
Well, guess what? I had pressed the little “car” icon on Google Maps and was therefore regarded a vehicle instead of as a real human being with wants and needs and feelings and emot… (EDITOR’S NOTE: Get on with it!)
Bottom line: The plotted vehicular path from one hotel to the other took into account one-way streets while eliminating a simple Point-A-to-Point-B from the equation. Hence the long, long, long route.
All I had to do was press the little “pedestrian” icon and I would have reached the team’s hotel — located only 400 metres away — in six minutes.
How did I even graduate from nursery school?
3:32 p.m.
Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther, a proud and distinguished graduate of Saint Mary’s University, prepares to meet the media.
Hold on! He spots the Saint Mary’s Huskies’ current head football coach, Steve Sumarah, and a brief chat ensues.
I eventually discover that Sumarah is the very same coach who, back in 2009, had recruited Lauther to play at Saint Mary’s.
Sometimes the stories write themselves.
Sometimes you fail to figure out Google Maps, walk aimlessly and gormlessly for far too long, and end up somewhere near Lunenberg.
3:48 p.m.
I stumble into another story. Sue Linnen, a cancer patient, has had her wish granted by Cameco Riders Touchdown for Dreams.
Her aspiration was to see her beloved Roughriders play an away game and, sure enough, here she is in Halifax with her husband of 50 years, Ken.
Before being interviewed by yours truly, the Linnens chat with CBC. While posing for a photo, Sue turns to her husband and jokes: “You have to hug me whether you want to or not.”
They are the nicest people!
Sue has been battling lymphoma for 12 years. You wouldn’t know it by listening to her, looking at her, or talking to her.
Her love of life, and love of a laugh, is something we all should emulate and applaud.
Again, some stories write themselves. Look for this one on Riderville.com.
4:15 p.m.
After the walk-through, I chat with middle linebacker Larry Dean.
Larry is, in a word, awesome.
He isn’t always a man of many words, but his actions speak volumes.
On Friday morning, for example, he visited Adsum House — a Halifax women’s shelter — along with defensive tackle Charbel Dabire and Gainer the Gopher.
“To take time out of our day just to brighten somebody else’s day, that was important,” Larry tells me.
“We just spent some time with the women and children, put a couple of smiles on their faces, took a couple of pictures, signed a couple of caps for the kids, and played a little cornhole. We just let them know we’re regular people, just like them.
“Sometimes we make a big ordeal about small things. Something like this just brings you back and keeps you humble and grounded. It just keeps everything in perspective.”
Also on Friday, Schaffer-Baker joined Roughriders alumnus — and 2023 Fan Charter co-host — Wes Cates at a youth football camp. The two-hour session was held early in the afternoon at Huskies Stadium.
Gainer was at the camp and, later on, paid a visit to Ronald McDonald House, along with Schaffer-Baker.
5:18 p.m.
I board the team bus — nearly three hours later than I first intended to board a team bus — and am clearly rallying.
5:58 p.m.
Back at the hotel, it is time to write … and write … and write … and write …
10:02 p.m.
(Most of) the writing is finished for the night. I go foraging for clam chowder and end up Hoovering three pizza slices. Clams, far and wide, are ecstatic.
There is a need to walk off the very late and caloric supper, so I go for a stroll around Lower Water Street and meet an adorable doggy named Chester.
His owners, a very pleasant New Brunswick couple, have driven to Halifax for Touchdown Atlantic.
Chester is resplendent in a home-made Roughriders bandana.
(I miss my dog.)
10:30 p.m.
It’s time to walk to Riderville, with the assistance of Google Maps and the life-saving instructions provided earlier by Arielle.
The result is a breezy 18-minute stroll to The Marquee Ballroom.
Eva Fletcher, the Roughriders’ Event Co-ordinator, told me that the band — The Mellotones — would be sensational.
She spoke the truth. WHAT A GROUP!
The Mellotones are playing at Riderville (2037 Gottingen St.) on Saturday night and into the wee hours of Sunday morning. The venue is open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
10:48 a.m.
Kevin Clive, our Senior Sales and Partner Relations Executive, escorts me over to a quieter part of The Marquee Ballroom.
“You have to hear this story,” he tells a salivating scribe.
I am then introduced to two visitors from England — Rich Simmonds (who lives in London) and Francesca Miles (from Kent).
Until Saturday night, neither Rich nor Francesca had heard of the Roughriders, Canadian football, or my dog.
Then, after a tasty supper, they wandered down Gottinger Street and, well, let Rich tell it …
“We basically had two choices. Do we go across the road and continue a fine-dining-and-cocktails-based evening or do we go this area that has a beers-and-party kind of vibe?”
They opted for the latter. The wisdom of that decision was underlined when they were informed that there would be a live band (The Mellotones) and a very reasonable cover charge (none; only a Riderville wristband was required).
“Anyway,” Rich continues, “the band was playing and everyone was dressed in green. As English folk, we thought, ‘Maybe this is some kind of Irish do,’ but as we walked around the room we saw the Saskatchewan slogans and such.
“Fran is a confident woman, so she strode up to a bearded man (Ryan Rennebohm), who was wearing a green shirt, and basically said, ‘What is happening? What is the vibe here?’
“We were told that Toronto was playing Saskatchewan and people scurried off to buy us T-shirts, which we’re thrilled by, so we bought them beers in return.
“We’re having a wonderful time. Everyone is so extremely friendly, as they have been the entire time we have been in Nova Scotia.”
This truly is one of those “only in the CFL …” stories.
“One guy was saying that the score’s going to be 27-23,” Miles recounted. “I said, ‘What is the scoring system in this game?’ I’m used to 3-1!”
On Saturday, she quickly became accustomed to and embraced the essence and the heart of Canadian football — labelling her unlikely introduction to and immersion in Riderville as “the friendliest, nicest thing that’s ever happened.”
