On this edition of ‘MOJ on Sports’, host Bob Marjanovich talks with Rick Campbell, head coach of the B.C. Lions, who has been involved with the Canadian Football League (CFL) for over 20 years.
Campbell’s father, Hugh, was a legendary CFL coach who led the Edmonton Eskimos to five Grey Cup championships, so football runs in his blood.
Campbell’s coaching career began in 1999 as a defensive backs coach for the Calgary Stampeders. Over the years, he held various coaching positions with the Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Calgary Stampeders. In 2014, he was named head coach of the expansion team Ottawa Redblacks, and in just his second season, he led them to their first-ever Grey Cup championship in 2016. This made him the first head coach in CFL history to lead an expansion team to a Grey Cup win in just their second season.
In 2019, Campbell took over as head coach of the BC Lions, where he has continued to make a positive impact on the team.
The ‘MOJ’ asked Campbell, what were the traits that he was looking for in his athletes.
‘Number one is you have to have talent. If guys aren’t talented enough, you can’t win. But the thing that needs to be mixed in with the talent is character and some good people, throughout the building in the organization, whatever it is,’ says Campbell.
‘The thing I did learn from my dad is that every hiring matters, whether it’s the assistant equipment guy or whoever it is on the team, they all matter. So, you really want to think things through and I think that’s what we’re trying to do here is keep stacking positive pieces.’
Campbell was asked about building winning organisation.
‘It’s when you go through a tough time, if you go through a tough loss or you have a losing streak or whatever happens, that’s where you really find out if people will hang in. And, keep their head down and keep working and not point fingers and do all those things. If you got that, that’s where the magic happens.’
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