Gryphon Football:  Unpaused

Mid March seems like a lifetime ago. It marked the moment that unfathomable change hit everyone, in every corner of the world. COVID-19 has asked questions of all of us and left us trying to figure out answers.

The pandemic has prevented us from doing the things that most people took for granted. And the members of Gryphon Football were not exempt. But how they would respond was never in doubt.

“This has been a very challenging time for many people,” says U of G Head Coach Ryan Sheahan. “Having a season taken away has been devastating to players, coaches, partners, and fans. Football is not something that we play or do but is a part of who we are.

“As a coach, I am very proud of our athletes for persevering and staying committed to our team goal of being champions. The fact that our guys have participated in Zoom meetings, leadership discussions, and maintained their fitness levels with great intensity during this six-month period has been nothing short of amazing.

“There’s a special group here, on the verge of something great. I can feel it.”

That commitment to moving forward extends beyond the workout rooms and football field. The entire program has embraced the idea of progressing in this strange 2020 that will end with no U SPORTS football being played. While the image for many over these last six months was of a remote control, with the pause button being hit, Gryphon Football staff saw things differently.

“We sat down with Coach Sheahan and he talked about how this extended season was an opportunity to get better,” says Dhanung Bulsara, Gryphon Football’s Social Media Producer and Videographer. “He said, ‘There are no excuses. There shouldn’t be a pause to the season.’”

And that was the origin of “Unpaused,” the program’s new approach to what would have been the 2020 U SPORTS season. Bulsara and the Gryphon Football multimedia team will have a full schedule of content available to all supporters, catering videos and social media posts to the specific theme of typical home games, like Community Day, O Week, Breast Cancer Awareness, and Homecoming. There is additional content planned for road games,

The programming kicked off this week with Mayor Cam Guthrie sitting down to discuss what makes Guelph a great city. It continued with tributes to honourary captain Darryl Skuse, a piece on Gryphons in the community, a poll for captains of the decade, a player interview prior to what would have been game day, and highlight packages of games against the OUA opponent of that week.

Veteran receiver AJ Chase was the first player to be profiled in Unpaused. The Management, Economics and Finance major from Montreal has had to adapt to the new normal with the pandemic and what that means for his football career. Chase says he would normally be preparing mentally and physically to peak and be in prime shape in time for the first kickoff. He instead focused on improving on what he calls his “poor movement,” which he believes has led to injuries. Since that work began in May, he has enjoyed great results and increased both his speed and mobility.

In his recent segment, Chase described why he chose the University of Guelph.

“The Unpaused theme is a great way to keep all the stakeholders of Gryphon Football engaged with the program,” he says, noting that he will get an additional fix of the sport by watching his beloved Miami Dolphins and playing fantasy football with his teammates. “It’s definitely difficult to put out content when there is no season, and our Advancement program found a way to keep our social media interesting and engaging.”

It was important for to have a plan for those hungry to keep on top of Gryphon Football. That includes first-year students, who like the team’s recruits, will be experiencing university in an entirely different way than expected.

“We wanted to build up that hype you would initially have for the week of a home game and celebrate what we would normally do through the course of the year,” Bulsara says. “We wanted to give them a glimpse of what the week of a Gryphon Football game looks like and have the experience of celebrating those special occasions.”

Bulsara was struck by the honesty and disappointment of the Gryphon players he and the multimedia team spoke with. Guelph built great momentum last year in Coach Sheahan’s debut campaign, falling just a win short of an appearance in the Yates Cup. While there is heartache at the lost season, there is plenty to look forward to on a team that will ultimately have one of the best defences in the country.

“It’s no surprise that the guys are super disappointed and they definitely made that clear,” Bulsara says of what he saw through the lens of the camera. “That was important, the vulnerability of that disappointment.

“But these guys are all on the same page. It’s a ‘no days off’ mentality. They are pursuing bigger dreams and they know the grind continues even if there isn’t a season.

“This team will be super hungry to get at it when they’re able to.”

That was the message from the Coach from the start of the pandemic. And it is conveyed with this innovative content.

It will be a hard year for many knowing that special Saturdays at Alumni Stadium are on hold. But that time will come again. And until then, all members of Gryphon Football are happy to take their fingers off that button that ground everything to a halt.

“You can see it in our players’ eyes during our Unpaused interviews and I can hear it in their voices when we talk on the phone,” says Coach Sheahan. “To band together and move forward through adversity is something that champions are made of.

“And the entire staff is proud of our players for that.”

Check out Gryphon Football’s Unpaused programming on Twitter @FootballGryphon, Instagram @gryphonfootball, Facebook @gryphonfootball and online at https://www.gryphonfootball.com/

Written By: David DiCenzo