Corey Mace scored his first CFL touchdown just one day after first touching down in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ current head coach — whose appointment was announced one year ago on Saturday — initially visited our province on Oct. 16, 2010, when the Calgary Stampeders arrived at Regina International Airport.
The next day, Mace scored on a 60-yard fumble return to help the Stampeders win 34-26 at historic Mosaic Stadium.
With that in mind, could the football gods have scripted a better place for Mace to eventually receive his first head-coaching opportunity?
“Hopefully they’ve written something about winning a Grey Cup here, too,” Mace says. “That would be great.
“But, yeah, it has come full circle.”
Circling back a year, Mace was poised to be introduced at a well-attended media conference before an appreciative audience that included his wife, Petra.
“From coming down the escalator at the airport, all the way to seeing the facility together, it has been awesome,” reflects the proud father of Maleena, 5, and Micah, 2.
“The team did a great job of welcoming us on the MaxTron and on the four screens by my office. There was presentation of the jerseys for our family and the kids at the Hotel Saskatchewan. Everything was first-class.
“Usually, at the beginning of something like that, you expect everybody’s best, and then it’s back to reality and things settle down.
“It has been amazing since Day 1. I think that really just speaks to the fact that the people who work in this organization love this team as much as anybody else does who plays or coaches for it.
“That’s part of the culture that has been here and is embedded in this province.”
Mace, who is from Port Moody, B.C., excelled as a defensive tackle at the University of Wyoming before proceeding to the NFL.
After three seasons with the Buffalo Bills, Mace joined the Stampeders in late August of 2010.
He was a Stampeders player for six seasons before being named the team’s defensive line coach.
His success in that capacity over five years led to the offer of a promotion from the Toronto Argonauts. He was the Argos’ defensive co-ordinator for two successful seasons before wowing everyone during an interview process that led to his hiring by Jeremy O’Day, the Roughriders’ vice-president of football operations and general manager.
Mace went on to earn West Division coach-of-the-year honours, having guided the 2024 Roughriders to second place and a home playoff victory.
“One of the best decisions that I’ve made in my life was to take this opportunity,” he says.
“I’m very, very pleased to be able to do it with everybody we get to do it with every day.”
The good feelings extend to life away from the stadium and in the community.
“It’s a cool experience that everybody here is invested in the team,” Mace says. “In my interactions over this calendar year that we’re talking about, I’ve not had one bad interaction with anybody who myself or my family stops to talk to. Everything has been positive and we love that.
“We don’t shy away from understanding what comes with the role and being connected to the organization. People care and they want to know more about the team. If it’s me that they ask, I love talking Rider football, so it’s never an issue.
“It has been fantastic.”
The reception wasn’t quite as cordial 14 years ago, when Mace was introduced to Saskatchewan as a first-year member of the arch-rival Stampeders.
But even as a member of the opposition, he quickly developed an appreciation for the football climate in this province.
“We played as visitors, but I always remember looking out the window of the Hotel Saskatchewan and seeing the Hill towers,” Mace says.
“At that time, the big ‘S’ and the Roughriders’ logo were on the towers. I said, ‘This is different. You don’t get this in any other CFL city. This place loves this team,’ so you knew that you were walking into an environment that was going to be madness.
“There’s not any other city that I can think of where you go in and you’ve got so much promotion for their team as you saw in Regina. That was awesome. I vividly thinking, ‘Boy, it’s going to be hostile.’ ”
And now …?
“It’s way better now,” Mace says with a laugh. “Way better.”
