The off-season recruiting process never stops for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
On the football operations side, the search for CFL-calibre players is exhaustive and never-ending. The team behind the team — the Rider Squad — is also in search of new talent.
Prospective volunteers can visit Riderville.com and apply to become a member of the Rider Squad. The application portal opened Friday morning.
“It’s all about making sure the fans have a good experience in the stadium,” says Yvonne Harrison, a game-day manager who has been a volunteer since 2015.
Volunteers perform an assortment of duties before, during and after each game at Mosaic Stadium.
Outside the stadium, fans will have noticed the guides, guest-relations personnel and, of course, the ticket scanners.
Within the facility, customers routinely interact with the section hosts, whose priority is to ensure that every fan has an enjoyable game-day experience.
Volunteers are also busy on the field, especially leading up to and during the pre-game festivities. That is one of the areas that is a priority for Ron Jones, a volunteer since 2014.
“The Rider Squad is more than just the Rider games,” says Jones, whose wife Lovella is also a volunteer and game-day manager. “That’s a big component of it, but there’s other things. There’s a Fan Day. There are the tours.
“To me, when a volunteer joins or is interested in becoming a volunteer, the Rider games are a big component, but there’s just so much more that they can be involved in with the Riders.
“The Riders are such a great organization — a great volunteer organization — and, believe me, Lovella and I have been working in a lot of volunteer opportunities.”
They are, for example, volunteering at this year’s Brier in Regina.
“With the Riders, the draw has always been that they’re a world-class organization, and this is Regina,” says Lovella, who concentrates on guest relations. “You don’t really get those opportunities that often.
“It’s a very diverse team of volunteers and I think that’s what makes it so much fun.”
It can be difficult to keep up with the Joneses on game days, because they are here, there and everywhere.
“Both of us put on, I would say, a good 15 kilometres walking around the stadium,” Ron says.
“I am also a photographer for our Rider Squad Facebook page, so I’ll try to capture as many pictures as I can.
“Hopefully I get a large portion of all the volunteers with a specific intent of trying to tell a story of what the Rider Squad is all about.”
Documentation of the volunteers’ efforts contributes to the camaraderie.
“The team of volunteers is much like a family,” Ron says. “Everyone truly looks after one another.
“Everyone looks forward to getting back together to work and play with all the other volunteers and fans. It is really unique.”
According to Rob Harrison, the Roughriders’ Volunteer and Guest Experience Manager, the volunteer force for each game consists of 150 to 160 people. There is generally a pool of about 200 volunteers.
Each volunteer is required to commit to a minimum of six regular-season games, plus any playoff contests.
Once a volunteer applies, there will be a pre-orientation process over the phone, followed by an in-person orientation session. A training session at the home pre-season game will follow.
Each volunteer is asked to provide a one-time fee of $50, which helps to cover the cost of a Rider Squad uniform, a meal at each game, and private events. Volunteers are also eligible to receive prizes.
“They’re all great people,” Ron Jones says. “We love working with them. These are people who we probably never would have bumped into other than volunteering for the Riders. It has been a blast.
“Each of them is priceless in their own way. The group that I work with, specifically on the field, they’re absolutely fantastic. I love working with that group. I never want to give them up.”
Lovella can attest to that.
“I’ve tried to take one or two of them,” she says, “and it has almost caused a family feud.”
Although many of the volunteers’ duties are spelled out with precision, there is also room for random requests.
“Don’t be afraid to ask us questions, because if we don’t know the answer, we’ll find out,” Yvonne Harrison says. “I’ve had fans ask me questions and I’m like, ‘I don’t know the answer to that, but let me look.’
“Quite honestly, our volunteers are like a human Google.”
