Football coach doing his part for Humboldt
This past weekend he LAS VEGAS was under the bright lights of Las Vegas for an 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 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, following the death of 16 people on the junior Broncos bus that collided with a semi-trailer 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 CFL circles for running his cfldaily.ca website.
“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 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 who 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 100 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 it 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.
“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’re there to support them, because it’s not going away anytime soon.”