Gary Jeffries had a homecoming of sorts when he gave a speech to the Gryphons at their spring camp’s closing dinner at Cutten Fields.
“I have some history here,” the former head coach of the Laurier Golden Hawks said. He graduated from a two-year agricultural diploma program.
“It was a program back then for kids who couldn’t get in anywhere else. It was perfect for me. Perfect,” he said. “A city kid in an Aggie program with a bunch of farm kids. I was certainly out of place. I remember the bull ring (and it was an actual bull ring, not a pub or coffee shop), showing off a cow and the cow stood on my foot and I couldn’t get him off it. All the farm kids thought that was funny.”
During his two years at Guelph, Jefferies was a multi-sport athlete.
“I played some hockey, football and had some great, great experiences for sure,” he said. “In 1967, I played football and I went out for the hockey team and the basketball team. Garney (Henley) was the basketball coach. I made both teams, until we had a game the same night in hockey and basketball and I had to make a decision. I played hockey, and that was the end of my basketball career. It also tells you that it was probably the end of the my academic career, too.”
After Guelph, Jefferies went to Laurier where he coached women’s basketball, men’s basketball and football.
“I did end up over at Laurier and I was there for 42 years,” he said. “I coached 50 seasons of CIS sport, six of girls’ basketball as head coach of the women’s team, eight years with the men’s basketball team and 36 years of football, 10 years as head coach. I’ve had a blessed life. I never worked a day. I’m pretty fortunate.”
Gryphon interim head coach Kevin MacNeill, offensive coordinator Todd Galloway and receivers coach Steve Frake all played for Laurier when Jeffries was head coach and Gryphon athletic therapist Teresa Budwal was also on the Laurier staff.
“To have watched them grow up to get to this point is fantastic,” he said. “I’m very, very proud of all of them.”
He can also relate to where the Gryphon football squad is now through experiences he had at Laurier.
“It’s a process,” he said. “You’re well on your way.”
Laurier lost to McMaster in the Yates Cup match of 2002, then won the OUA title the following year, but lost to Laval in the national semifinals. In 2004, they won it all including the national championship Vanier Cup game with a win over heavily-favoured Saskatchewan.
“That’s where you are,” he said. “That’s where you are. You’re knocking on the door.”
Jeffries considers football ‘the greatest team game in the world.’
“I truly believe that. There are so many interdependent parts, offence, defence, special teams, the right guard with the left guard,” he said. “It’s so important that we all be on the same page and that we play together. You have to play together.”
He considers there to be no heroes in football.
“(There are) 130 of us and every one as important as the other, right down to the young kid that picks up the towels in the dressing room,” he said. “They’re all important. You take any one of those 130 away and it’s not the same. You won’t be as strong. You all have the same goal, to win the last one.”
Teams can be defined by how they handle adversity. Running a winning streak is easy and everyone can be a great victor. However, it’s how teams and people handle adversity that define them.
“How do you react after you drop one? How do you react after you miss a tackle? You get knocked down, what do you do? You get back up. Knocked me down again, I’m going to get up again. Knocked me down again, I’m going to get up again. How do you react to adversity? That defines who you are. Everybody is a great frontrunner. It’s easy to be a great frontrunner and things are going well. What happens when you get knocked down? You get back up.
“I coached probably 800 games between football and basketball in my career, somewhere in that neighbourhood. Not one time did I say to my athletes that we had to win. You never have to win, I don’t believe that for one second. What you have to do is you have to compete. I demand that you compete. If you do that, you’re going to look up at the scoreboard when that thing is over and there’s a very good chance you’re going to have more than they have. It’s critical that you compete with every fibre and every ounce of your being.”
Jeffries has watched the Gryphons play several games over the last few seasons and he’s looking forward to watching them put in another successful season this year.
“The thing I liked the most was how hard you play,” he said. “That’s reflective of great coaching and it’s also reflective of great young men who buy in and that’s what you’ve got right now. You’re knocking on the door and you’re going to kick it in.”
And Jeffries would always turn to his players and say the same thing before every game.
“God bless, I love you and let’s go get them,” he said.
He has a similar statement for the Guelph squad.
“Gryphons, I wish you the best. Go get them.”