Jun
Record meaningless: Buono
Courtesy Montreal Gazette:
There is a bemused look on the face of Wally Buono when asked to define success. The look changes only when he insists the parameters of the debate are expanded to include what he has done in his life outside football.
As a coach, the man in charge of the Lions will try and tell you he hasn’t accomplished much at all, though he is not convincing.
A few months after training camp in Abbotsford, which begins with rookie sessions today at W.J. Mouat Secondary, Buono will become the CFL’s career coaching leader with 232 regular-season victories. It is a storyline that is sure to become familiar through his seventh season as coach/GM of the Lions.
Having averaged nearly 12 wins through his first 19 seasons, Buono needs five victories from his 20th year as a head coach to establish a new mark. On its own, the record as a definition of success will mean nothing, he insists.
“I’ve been in football 37 years. I won six Grey Cups [counting two as a player with the Montreal Alouettes] and lost 31; that’s not very much success if you want to equate it to what’s really important,” he said. “If it’s just about wins and losses, it’s empty.”
And with Buono, that’s the rub. He may be viewed as being in a chase to vault past Don Matthews at a pace that is slightly faster (see chart) than his more colourful former adversary, who has returned to retirement.
But it’s clear Buono is driven by forces outside the game that are closest to the father of four and husband of 37 years. The look on his face as he discusses success with a reporter now makes it obvious: Being a successful family man is just as important as successful coach.
“My kids all want me to die [coaching],” he said. “Unbelievable, huh? They say ‘Dad, you can’t quit.’ They want their children to experience what they experienced being in sports. I said if you want to experience it you better start having kids.
“My wife is more mellow. She says, ‘Wally, I can’t see you not doing something.’ I said, ‘I can.’ That’s why I’m not trying to get ahead of myself.”
Indeed, rare has been the time when Buono has ever put the game ahead of his family.
He again may have shown his ruthless side during the offseason by moving four starters for little or no compensation that has shaken the foundation of the Lions. No more defining moment as to what truly shapes Buono’s character, however, came after another conversation, which took place after his biggest win as a Lions coach.
Moments after finishing a scrum following the Lions’ win at the 2006 Grey Cup in Winnipeg, Buono summoned a Province reporter. Without prompting and in a quivering voice sitting by himself in a dimly-lit corner of the stadium with a celebration ongoing elsewhere, he began quietly discussing the failing health of his mother, Carmela.
In that context, the season ahead is not about Buono and a record, but a referendum on whether an amazing formula for regular-season success works in November.
With 13 player moves in all, counting free agent and option-year losses, no training camp since the first Buono ran for the Lions in 2003 will have as much at stake.
Buono’s process for building a team each year hasn’t altered drastically since his first game as a CFL coach with the Stampeders, which came in 1990 at B.C. Place against the Lary Kuharich-led Lions, or upon gaining the dual role of coach/GM of the Stamps two seasons later.
The foundation for this year’s Lions team, for example, was built the moment Buono cut slotback Jason Clermont, gift-wrapping the veteran to his hometown Roughriders.
It’s a formula Buono took to heart not long after taking the dual role in ’92 when he used to regularly call former Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach/GM Cal Murphy for advice.
“I used to say, ‘Don’t marry the player,’” said Murphy, now a regional scout for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
“What Wally does is make a move with people before he’s over the hill. The player he [cuts] may be popular, but you have to do it.”
The dual job extracts a physical toll that is far greater than when Buono began doing both jobs in Calgary. No other coach in the league has been with his team longer than a year. Buono has finished six seasons with the Lions, and the only adversary in the league holding both a coach/GM job title is a protege, the Stamps’ John Hufnagel.
And though he is committed to fulfilling the remaining two years of his contract, Buono admitted on the eve of his first Lions training camp without the late Bob Ackles as a guiding light he can foresee the day where his role could change.
Still, the game keeps drawing him back for more.
“If you ask me December 1, I’m going to say I don’t want to do it no more. I’d probably say that every year. I’m anxious now about getting started, just to see players like [first-round draft pick] Justin Sorensen and the young guys,” he said.
“I live in today when camp starts. So I’m 5-13 this year; boy, I’m going to really feel good about that [record-setting] fifth win. That has never been what’s important. I’ve never believed that you are what you were. You are what you make yourself.”
Just as there’s more than one way to define success.
Friday: Camp preview
CFL’S BEST OF THE BEST
Regular season CFL career head coaching leaders:
Coach Wins Yrs IP CW*
Don Matthews 231 22 18 5
Wally Buono 227 19 18 4
Frank Clair 147 19 17 5
*-as head coach
(IP-In playoffs: CW-Cup wins)
