For Esks coach, continuing with Humboldt football camp to help restore bit of normalcy

Camp Kelly Bates’ way to help

FOOTBALL BACK IN HUMBOLDT B1

LAS VEGAS This weekend he’s under the bright lights of Las Vegas for Edmonton Eskimos mini-camp, but next up for Kelly Bates will be a high-school football camp in the more subdued setting of his hometown.

Typically, the club’s offensive quality control coach heads back to Humboldt, Sask., at the beginning of May to host the Kelly Bates Football Camp, the 12th edition of which will run May 5-6.

But this year, he found himself making the trip back a bit earlier than expected.

Completely unexpected following the death of 16 people on the junior Broncos bus that collided with a semi truck on April 6.

“I actually went home for Tyler Bieber’s funeral,” Bates said of the Broncos play-by-play broadcaster, who was known in Canadian Football League circles for running his website, cfldaily. ca. “Tyler was an integral part of the community of Humboldt, he volunteered with everything. In high school he was the manager for the football team, he concurrently coached the football and basketball teams.

“And every year, you know his love for the CFL, he’d come out and do whatever we asked him, whether it was video work or handing out lunches to the kids. He just wanted to be around it.”

A celebration of Bieber’s life was held on April 12 at the Humboldt Uniplex.

“I got home from Tyler’s funeral and this will be the second time back,” Bates said. “I know it’s going to be an emotional trip, but I look forward to being part of the atmosphere where we can build a little bit of positiveness.”

The tragedy is unimaginable for most, let alone anyone who laced up their skates as youngsters playing hockey in Humboldt.

“I still play hockey,” Bates — a former Eskimos offensive lineman who tipped the scales at nearly 300 pounds in his playing days — said, before grinning. “Well, it depends who you ask what that is, but I still play hockey.”

The effects felt by the community transcend sports.

“I don’t think you’ll ever not have a long-lasting effect with something like this,” Bates said.

“These families have lost family members, there’s injuries that will result in people never being the same and they’re going to be dealing with it at the forefront for the rest of their lives.

“We each do our part to provide support and be there when we can be there to do our part.”

For Bates, that means continuing on with the annual football camp. Though it wasn’t chief among his concerns at the time.

“It didn’t really enter my mind at the start,” Bates said. “There are so many people attached to the camp that are teachers and coaches within that school and are on the front lines of helping to provide the ability for people to gather and grieve. And provide leadership and support while at the same time grieving themselves.

“You can’t measure the effect that will have on people. That, first and foremost, was my thought process, what can I do to be of use to those people?”

As it turns out, that involves doing what he does best: Coaching football.

“I think the camp provides an opportunity to create a little bit of normalcy,” Bates said. “It’s building relationships and that’s so important in life and key in everything you do.”

If the camp registration numbers are any indication, everyone is in agreement.

“We’re very fortunate. We’ll still have a hundred kids come out: 20 or 30 from Humboldt and 70 from across the province, all four corners. We’re very lucky in that respect.

“It’s one of my favourite weekends of the year.”

And has been for quite some time.

“This is Year 12,” said Bates, whose brief time with the Saskatchewan Roughriders saw him shelved on the long-term injured list with an elbow injury suffered in training camp, before being dealt to the Eskimos midway through the 2010 season.

“My goal at first was to outlast all of the Riders that put on camps, and I have. And now we just keep going.”

Through the good times and bad. “I didn’t lose a family member in it, but it’s still the first thing you think of when you get up in the morning, and you go on social media and it’s all there,” Bates said. “Imagine what those families are going through.

“I feel like it’s our responsibility to make sure that we are there to support them because it’s not going away anytime soon.”

One CFL grad to make his way through Bates’ camp is Keenan MacDougall, a defensive back from Saskatoon who played with the Calgary Stampeders and the Roughriders.

“Keenan comes back and coaches at it every year now,” Bates said. “So you’ve got that community continuing to cycle back and support each other and lift everybody up.

“It’s a very important part of it.”