Culture.
It’s a word that gets tossed around all the time when a discussion arises in regards to building a team in professional sports.
Rarely, though, does anyone define it or provide examples of it.
When your agent went to the BC Lions training camp in Kamloops and subsequently a pre-season game in Langford, he saw examples of it and wanted to share those instances to give you an idea of what it looks like in reality.
The first case was during an afternoon practice at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops in which Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke connected on a long touchdown pass to receiver Jevon Cottoy. The other wideouts raced downfield to congratulate Cottoy before making their way to the sidelines as the next group of receivers took to the field.
While exiting the field, Cottoy and fellow receivers Justin McInnis and Keon Hatcher grabbed some water as they made their way down the sidelines to the main group of offensive players watching the scrimmage.
While Hatcher got hydrated and joined the offense on the sidelines rather quickly, McInnis and Cottoy remained near the water station and got into a conversation. Hatcher noticed this and quickly told his teammates that they still had work to do. It wasn’t communicated in a malicious manner – just a quiet reminder that while the touchdown was nice, they still had to focus on what was going on. Both McInnis and Cottoy acknowledged Hatcher and proceeded to join the main group.
It was a simple illustration of holding your teammates accountable to a standard and not resting on your laurels.
In Lions head coach Buck Pierce’s perfect world, he shouldn’t be holding players accountable. They should be holding each other accountable.
This was a great occurrence of that.
Another example of culture took place on another day when the linemen got together for one-on-one’s in the far end zone at Hillside Stadium.
It was a rare padded practice, so the linemen were eager to compete in the utmost test for these alpha males.
When Brandon Yates dominated his opponent for two consecutive reps, he walked back and expressed his frustration to his fellow offensive linemen that were watching.
Yates could have been extremely satisfied knowing that he had just owned his opponent in the drill on back-to-back occasions but he wasn’t happy – he was somewhat angry.
“I’m not getting better with reps like that,” he told his cohorts.
Yates had won his battle but he realized that he wasn’t being challenged to work on the things he needed to do to improve his game.
It was a great example of someone who was focused on the process rather than the result.
The last example we will give you was at the team hotel the day before the game at Starlight Stadium in Langford versus the Edmonton Elks.
The Lions were staying at the Westin Bear Mountain and arrived around 5:30pm on Friday. They had already gone through a walk-thru practice earlier in the day in Kamloops before departing for Vancouver Island.
But here on a Friday night just outside the entry area to the beautiful property were a group of rookie receivers and running backs along with veteran quarterback Jarret Doege all dressed in their civvies. The 28-year-old former Elk and Argo had just been signed a week earlier after being released by Toronto but here he was running the rookies through a very simplified walk through to help them understand their routes and responsibilities.
It was a great example of a group of players who were invested and putting in some extra work while Doege showed his leadership characteristics.
There were other examples as well but we are limited in space.
The bottom line is that culture is an attitude that shows up in various forms.
It’s difficult to define yet when you see it, you do recognize it.
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