Nick Bowley, Nathan Schellenberg and Mike Woytowich tackle long days without any evidence of long faces.
“It’s a dream job, so I love what I do,” says Woytowich, a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ video/analytics trio. “You never feel like you’re working.”
Bowley, Schellenberg and Woytowich are crucial to the inner workings of the Football Operations department.
They combine a mastery of cutting-edge video technology with data-driven strategic studies to assist the coaches and player-personnel people in a multitude of ways.
“I respect the heck out of them and all the work they put in,” Roughriders quarterback Shea Patterson says. “I see it first-hand. They’re working 24/7 to make sure we have the necessities to excel.”
Bowley joined the organization as a Video Assistant 11 years ago. He was promoted to Manager, Video Analytics, in 2022.
Schellenberg’s association with the Roughriders dates back to 2015, when he was a Training Camp Assistant for the first of four consecutive springs.
After camp wrapped up in 2018, he remained with the organization on a seasonal basis as a Football Research and Development Assistant. He was hired as a full-time Video and Analytics Co-ordinator shortly after the 2021 CFL season.
Woytowich interned with the Roughriders during training camp in 2019. He spent the 2021 season as the Edmonton Elks’ Head Video Co-ordinator. In the spring of 2022, he returned to the Roughriders, this time in a full-time role, as a Video Co-ordinator.
“We’re support staff, just like the trainers and equipment managers,” Bowley explains.
“We provide coaches, scouts, the GM and the assistant GMs with video, data and technology to support their activities.
“The video would be our practice video, CFL video, the scouting video, and NFL video for game-planning and developing plays. There’s also the stats and the tech and mirroring them all together.
“Everything now is just one or two clicks and you can see whatever you want. When I got here, it wasn’t like that.”
Bowley has since expanded the video archives, which include CFL, NFL, NCAA and U Sports games, while ensuring that the Roughriders have the state-of-the-art equipment that allows them to be at the forefront of technology and therefore be time-efficient.
“We really take pride in having the best film in the league and having the video to the coaches the quickest in the league,” Bowley says.
Bowley grew up in midwestern Ontario, on a farm near Lake Huron, before studying Sports Management at Durham College in Oshawa.
He then spent two years working for the CFL office — first as an intern and then as a technician.
Then the Roughriders came calling, just a week before the 2013 season. Initially, the plan was for him to work for the team only during training camp, but he was soon hired full-time.
A few months later, he was part of the celebration after the Roughriders posted a home-field Grey Cup victory.
“It was pretty cool — a pretty fun ride,” recalls Bowley, who was four years old when he started attending CFL games with his father, Mark.
“My dad thought the Grey Cup ring was the coolest thing. He works for a hardware store in a small town (Lucknow, Ont.). He’d show everybody the ring and say it had his name on it.”
More than a decade later, Bowley’s name is still on the Roughriders’ payroll.
“I’m a football guy,” he says with a smile. “You don’t get more access than this job without playing or coaching.”
Schellenberg excelled in football and basketball at Regina’s Luther College High School before Idaho State University football team for the 1994-95 academic/athletic year.
He then returned to his home province and joined the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. He played university basketball and football for one year before concentrating on the latter sport.
In 1996, he helped the Huskies football team win the Vanier Cup.
With the Huskies men’s basketball team, Schellenberg was an assistant coach from 2002 to 2014.
As well, he was the Director of Basketball Development with Basketball Saskatchewan Inc., from 2007 to 2013.
In 2010, he was an assistant coach with a Canadian under-17 male basketball team that won a bronze medal at the inaugural FIBA under-17 championship.
Since 2016, Schellenberg’s company (Gameplan Data Inc.) has been providing U Sports teams with extensive data for their games.
“Nate is the hardest worker I’ve ever met,” Woytowich marvels. “That guy is a grinder. I don’t even know how to describe it.
“Some days, he’s here from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m., and then he’s back here the next day. It’s unreal, because he’s always working.
“If I ever go home and forget something at the stadium, I know Nate’s going to be there, because he’s always here. He’s very detailed and so good at what he does.
“I have so much admiration for Nate and Nick and I hope that one day I can be as good as they are at what we do.”
Like Bowley and Woytowich, Schellenberg has attained a goal by working in the sporting industry.
“If I wasn’t playing, I wanted to try and be involved somehow,” he says. “Since I was four or five years old, I remember loving sports, especially football and basketball. The chance to keep being involved is something I was looking for. I feel lucky that it has come to fruition.”
If that entails some work days that are of the dawn-to-dusk variety, or even longer, he doesn’t even blink.
“If I see a project in front of me that needs to be done, I’m just going to do it,” Schellenberg says. “I don’t care how long it takes. I want to make sure the work’s done well and that it’s done properly and that it’s going to help whoever we’re doing it for.”
Like Schellenberg, Woytowich was a youngster when he began immersing himself in sports as an avid participant and analytical fan.
“Growing up in Saskatoon, I’d be sitting in a basement and typing in stats,” he says. “This is what I’ve wanted do to since I discovered football when I was nine or 10.”
Woytowich played high school football for the Evan Hardy Souls before enrolling at the U of S. He initially studied Arts and Science before switching to Kinesiology.
Also at the U of S, he was a Video Assistant (2018) and Head Video Co-ordinator (2018 to 2021), in addition to being Saskatoon Minor Football’s Seasonal Program Co-ordinator for two years.
His ticket to the Roughriders was a training-camp internship in 2019. After COVID-19 forced the cancellation of Canadian football at all levels in 2020, he became a part of the Elks’ organization.
“I convinced my parents to let me go to Edmonton on the condition that I finished my degree one day,” Woytowich says. “So I’ve moved around for three years now, taking online classes, and I just finished my degree.
“I’ve gone back to school these last two off-seasons. Nate and Nick have carried a lot of my weight, so I’m very grateful to them.”
Bowley, for example, is a friend and mentor.
“I’ve learned so much from him,” Woytowich says. “I feel like I’ve become such a better video guy, being under him, than I would have by having my own department. He is unreal.
“Nick is constantly changing things to make them better. He knows what the department needs. He knows what the coaches need before they know what they need.”
That intuition comes in handy. The camaraderie is also a plus.
“We all get along great,” Schellenberg says. “That’s the biggest thing that makes things enjoyable and fun in our department.
“We work with the coaches pretty closely, obviously, but there’s a lot of time when it’s just us three. We want to make sure that we have fun when we’re doing it.”
What’s not to like?
“I was born and raised in Regina, so I bleed green,” Schellenberg says. “I’ve been a Rider fan all my life. To get to see how the team is built and some of the inner workings like preparing for games and game day, that’s pretty cool.
“The fact that I’m working in sports, I love that. The fact that it’s for the Riders and in my hometown, that’s the ultimate.”
(Part 1 of 2 — TOMORROW: The Video/Analytics team at work)
