VANCOUVER TRIP A HOMECOMING FOR ALOUETTES HEAD COACH
Vancouver might be the Bermuda Triangle for the Alouettes — with only two wins there since 2000 — but it’s home for head coach Khari Jones. And he hasn’t seen his wife and two teenage daughters since August.
So while his players must adhere to a curfew before Saturday’s game against the B.C. Lions (10 p.m., TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5, RDS, TSN Radio 690), Jones might be allowed to sneak a woman, wife Justine, into his room — provided that he simply doesn’t go home and sleep in his own bed.
“I don’t know if I’ll get to sleep in my bed and see my dog, but I’ll be able to see my daughters and my wife,” Jones said this week. “This is the longest period of separation we’ve had.”
Coaches lead a nomadic life, often separated from their families. And it has been no different for Jones, 48, a quarterback for five Canadian Football League teams over 11 seasons who then launched a coaching career two years after his retirement.
In his 11th season as a coach, Jones has been part of four staffs. He joined the Als last season as their offensive co-ordinator before being named interim head coach in June, following the unexpected firing of Mike Sherman after training camp.
Jones — who launched his professional playing career with Albany of the Arena League before a short stint in Scotland with the World League of American Football — estimated he and Justine have had at least 10 homes since they were married in 2000.
When he joined the Lions in 2014, he bought a home in the Cloverdale district of Surrey, not far from the team’s practice facility. Wanting to provide his daughters — Jaelyn, 17, and Siena, 14 — with stability, the family decided they wouldn’t move until the girls, at the very least, had completed high school. This is the longest the family has called the same residence home.
While the situation is far from ideal, the Als had three bye weeks in the schedule during the first half of the season, providing Jones with opportunities to return home. Jaelyn was close to Montreal, spending half the summer at New York University attending a dance program, while Siena came to Montreal for a national softball tournament. Not a month passed since the start of the season when the family wasn’t together for a time.
Jones also usually walks home to his downtown Montreal apartment from team practices at Olympic Stadium — a trip that can take up to two hours.
Not only does the jaunt keep the coach in shape, it provides him long periods of phone time with his family. And not a day passes when they don’t communicate.
“I’m always going to check in and see what’s happening,” the gregarious Jones said. “Sometimes she puts me on the phone while she’s cooking and the girls are doing homework. I feel like I’m there. That’s the good part of it. I get a feel for the house.
“I still feel part of things and it’ll be great to see them. Hopefully I’m doing this for a while and we figure out a better system to make this work.”
Jones met his wife while they were attending college, although they didn’t date for another four years, after both graduated. They were involved in theatre. When Jones learned of a play in Sacramento, Calif., being directed by one of his former professors — and discovered Justine landed a central role — he auditioned. They played the romantic leads and one thing led to another since a mutual attraction already existed.
No coach could succeed, and have his marriage survive, without an understanding wife back home.
“It takes a lot of work, especially now,” Jones said. “She’s just been outstanding. “To come into this world with me and have to learn the player’s life ... what that entailed, the ups and downs. And now on the coaching side. She has just been outstanding. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”
And that’s the key, Jones said. Justine might be his wife, but she’s also his best friend.
“Those first few years, that was the biggest test, to see how we were going to do. We were dating and I was away (playing). We just hung through it,” he said. “I think we learned enough then to know we were going to be together . ... Now it’s a bunch of years later and we’re kind of doing the same thing.”
His family will attend the game and, as tempting as it is to remain in Vancouver through the weekend, Jones will be on the team’s red-eye charter back to Montreal following the match.
“I never really feel apart, which is nice. We’re always in contact. She lets me know everything that’s going on,” Jones said. “It just feels comfortable. We don’t hold anything back. We just have a cool relationship.”