A FRIENDSHIP FORGED BY LOVE OF FOOTBALL
Gee-gees coach Barresi and new Redblacks sideline boss Lapolice go back 15 years
Through football and the thirst for knowledge, Jamie Barresi and Paul Lapolice became friends.
It goes back to 2004 in Hamilton for Barresi, who’s been the University of Ottawa Gee-gees head coach since 2013, and Lapolice, who will be introduced as the Ottawa Redblacks head coach at a news conference early Monday afternoon.
With current Western Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall then the Tiger-cats head coach, Barresi was the offensive co-ordinator and Lapolice was the receivers coach. Marshall had long been a university football coach, while Barresi had coached in the NCAA for 20 years. So both leaned on Lapolice, who was the Ticats receivers coach, for insight into the nuances of the CFL.
Barresi and Lapolice would work together again from 200809 in Saskatchewan, when the guy they call Lapo was the offensive co-ordinator. Then, when Lapolice became the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach in 2010, Barresi was his choice as offensive co-ordinator. After a 34-23 Grey Cup loss to B.C. in 2011, the Bombers decided not to renew Barresi’s contract.
Asked about exiting the Bombers job, Barresi said: “It’s just the way the business goes. You move on. I was employed (by Edmonton) almost within an hour.”
Lapolice was gone, too, midway through the following season after a 2-6 start. Barresi would get hired by the Gee-gees in 2013.
Even when they were separated by miles, the coaches talked and talked and talked football. After three years working on TV for TSN, Lapolice returned to Winnipeg as the Bombers’ offensive co-ordinator in 2016. His offence played a big role in the Bombers’ 33-12 Grey Cup win over Hamilton two weeks ago. Now, he’s a head coach again.
“We talk quite a bit,” Barresi said on Sunday. “I visited him for four days last spring. We went over a lot of stuff. I think it’s a pretty good situation to be able to go into a room and be able to bounce ideas off somebody. During the season, we often talk about different stuff. I always watch what he does, I get all his video. He did a lot of things in the Grey Cup game that we had talked about, a lot of those things we did when we were in Saskatchewan.
“We’re friends, but I’m not sending Christmas cards or anything like that. I visited Stanford, I visited Penn State, he’ll ask me about those visits and what we got out of it. In recent years, he was at Purdue and we shared a lot of ideas about that. We have a bond. He’s a good person to share ideas with.”
Lapolice steps into the Redblacks job as the team’s second head coach since it entered the league in 2014. Rick Campbell had led the Redblacks to the Grey Cup game three times in four years, winning in 2016. But two days after Ottawa finished off a dreadful 3-15 season, he told the team he was stepping aside with a year left on his contract.
Barresi thinks the Redblacks made a great choice in Lapolice.
“He’s an experienced CFL person,” he said. “He’ll be a good leader. He’s a good offensive mind, he’s going to be very creative. The things he did with Winnipeg, what they do with the second quarterback, all their short-yardage eyes, their ideas in terms of explosive plays, in terms of philosophy — he certainly has a mindset about what he wants to do.
“He’ll be good with the players. He tries to be as fair as possible. He treats people like men. He understands this is their livelihood.
“His job as a coach is to make them productive while making the team productive.”
Through the process, Barresi and Lapolice have remained in touch.
“We’ve texted,” Barresi said. “I asked him how the interview went and he was very positive about it. I found out (Saturday night) he got the job and sent him a note of congratulations.
“I thought he had a good chance, from the body of work. There was a situation that came up last year with Saskatchewan. He was in the same category as (former Redblacks OC) Jaime Elizondo, I don’t think he was allowed to interview for the job (as head coach). I know he was kind of bitter about it. At the time, I said to him: ‘It’ll just be a one-season thing, you’ll have a good year and you’ll be back in the mix.’ And that’s exactly what happened.
“Dealing with what they dealt with — he played with three quarterbacks and managed to get them to the Grey Cup and win it — he had to be under consideration (for the Redblacks job).”
He treats people like men. He understands this is their livelihood.