STAMPS’ DADS CELEBRATE
Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell takes a timeout with his daughter, Ele, at training camp. Mitchell is one of several Stampeders with a new appreciation for Father’s Day.
“I never had a dad. So ever since I was young, I promised myself that I’d be the best dad I ever could be, the best husband
I could be.”
Deron Mayo finally got his chance to fulfil the commitment he made as a kid growing up in Hampton, Virginia. This past April, his wife Janelle gave birth to their first child, a girl they named Maliya.
“I wake up at four in the morning and stare into Maliya’s eyes and she stares right back,” says the 221-pound linebacker with the Calgary Stampeders.
“It doesn’t matter how sleep deprived you are, it’s so amazing. My baby, and my wife, are what matter most in my life.”
The 29-year-old new father is, not surprisingly, pretty pumped about his first Father’s Day, which falls on Sunday.
“Obviously, Mother’s Day is first, but Father’s Day is still a pretty big deal,” he says.
This year, he won’t be alone among his teammates when it comes to celebrating new life and fatherhood: From March 3 to April 5, the Stampeders welcomed the arrival of no less than four babies, born to the families of Mayo, Bo Levi Mitchell, Rene Paredes and Rob Cote, the only one of the four not a first-time dad.
“Take a little time off and look what happens,” says Mayo with a laugh, crediting a bye week last summer for the spring baby windfall. “We multiply.”
Talking to the athletes who’ve now added diaper changing and sleepless nights to their routine, it’s clear from the get-go they are more than a little excited to join eight million other dads in Cana- da (according to Stats Canada) as king for a day in June.
They can thank a couple of American women for the honour.
The first Father’s Day event, organized by Grace Golden Clayton, was a Sunday brunch held in 1908 in a West Virginia church to honour the hundreds of men who were killed that year in a mine explosion.
Sonora Smart Dodd, though, gets the credit for turning it into a day that comes around each third Sunday in June. She was raised by a single dad, her mother having died in childbirth.
That first Father’s Day, in Spokane Wash., in 1909, quickly spread across the United States, Canada and over time, Europe and parts of Asia.
Dodd would spend the rest of her life campaigning to have it officially recognized, but it wasn’t until 1972 when then-U. S. President Richard M. Nixon made it a permanent national holiday in that country; in Canada, it’s still an unofficial but revered holiday.
It has long taken a back seat to Mother’s Day, which far outpaces Father’s Day for gift purchases and restaurant reservations.
Mayo agrees that when it comes to making a big deal once a year for parents, he doesn’t mind coming in second.
“During training season, I’ve been missing the mornings with them and then getting home pretty late in the evening,” he says. “Janelle keeps everything running, after the 28 hours of labour that started it all.”
At home, his wife has neighbour Madi, another new mom, to turn to, while on the field and in the clubhouse, Mayo has Madi’s husband, Bo Levi Mitchell, to commiserate with on the joys and stresses of new fatherhood.
For the Calgary Stampeders quarterback, first-time fatherhood is proving one of the best experiences of his life.
“It just gets better and better every day,” says Mitchell of life since little Ele made her debut on March 9. “I’m thinking I’d like to have seven more,” he adds with a wink.
This, despite an incident that occurred recently at the home of Mayo, his close friend off the field who lives in the same neighbourhood of Evanston. Mitchell had brought Ele over for a visit when she needed changing.
As Mitchell was finished changing his daughter’s diaper, he said jokingly with Mayo that “she had pooped all over” his couch.
“The next thing I know, it’s projectile poop everywhere
— on the couch, on the carpet, on my pants,” says the 27-yearold native of Katy, Texas.
“Please put it in the newspaper,” says Mayo. “Bo Levi Mitchell’s baby pooped on my couch.”
Rene Parades agrees that when it comes to welcoming a new baby into your home, there isn’t a playbook in the world to help you prepare.
“It’s a life changing experience,” says the 32-year-old kicker for the Calgary Stampeders, whose girlfriend Melyssa gave birth on March 27 to son Thiago. “We thought football was hard, but taking care of a kid is humbling.”
Yet he’s quick to note he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“I’m missing my baby all the time,” says Paredes, a native of Venezuela who spent his childhood in Miami and Montreal.
“I never thought I’d say this, but changing diapers is fun.”
The only second-timer in the Stampeders’ 2017 springtime baby bonanza is fullback Rob Cote.
“We have a handful now,” says the Calgary-born, Cochraneraised 30-year-old with a laugh. Wife Natalie gave birth on March 3 to a baby boy they named Wynn. With their twoyear-old boy Miller, the Cote home roster now stands at four.
It’s still not as hard as the first time around. “Nothing can compare to the changes in your life that going from zero to one child brings,” he says. “We are handling two a lot better than we handled just the one.”
He knows this time that the tiny new member of his family is the boss. “You have to eat when you can, you don’t get to sleep when you want to. Your life is no longer your own,” he says.
“But you don’t experience any of the joys without having them.”
Cote says he tries to parent the way he learned from his parents, Cam and Kristy. “My parents were always there for us kids,” says Cote, who when he isn’t on the field or with his family volunteers his time with a number of local charities.
“My folks were present for every moment, big and small.”
For Mayo, not having had that father figure in his life makes him even more committed to being the best one he can be. “It’s going great so far,” he says. “You know those big coffee mugs that read, ‘ World’s Greatest Father’ — I plan to earn that coffee mug.”