Gary Waterman of St. FX named U Sports Coach of the Year

The coach for the Saint Francis Xavier University X-Men football team received a high honour late last month.

Gary Waterman was named U Sports Coach of the Year. 

The honour is the latest piece of good news for the X-Men this year. The team was undefeated in Atlantic University Sport and won their second Loney Bowl trophy in a row.

Waterman spoke with the CBC's Information Morning Halifax on Wednesday.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q: What drew you to St. FX as a player in the 1980s and then later as a coach being from Ontario originally?

A: Not knowing a lot about St. FX as a school and having never been to Nova Scotia, I really kind of took a little bit of a gamble. But I had one friend who was here a little bit earlier than I and he raved about his experience and the people and the friendliness of St. FX in particular. I took that shot and took that leap of faith and it proved to be the best decision I ever made.

Q: Did you feel that instantly as a student and as a player?

A: I felt welcomed. I knew I wanted a smaller school experience and that was kind of adventurous and getting away was going to be something that I wasn't afraid to do. From the moment I got on campus, I was welcomed and the way people treated me and offered help — really, it was just a place that I felt very comfortable with pretty quickly.

Q: You've been head coach at St. FX since 2009. What have you learned about coaching in those years?

A: So many lessons. You start off as a young coach and you're just thinking about getting all the best players you can across the country. Then you step back and you go, 'No, I've got to build a program and I need to find the right type of people, not just the best athletes.' The student athletes, I need to make sure they have high character and make sure that they understand the community they're coming into. They're good citizens and they're good teammates. And so you really start to emphasize a few different things as you get a little bit older and more experienced in the job.

Q: How do you find out about their character and whether they're going to fit in with the school community?

A: It's a combination of getting a chance to meet with them and getting a feel for them. I often ask a lot of questions about who they are and what they've done in the past. And then when they're on campus, I asked the guys after they've gone what are they really like when they're not in the coach's office. I also try to talk to past coaches and people that might have had an opportunity to cross paths with them and so get as much information as you can. But it's not an exact science, but really you want to do a lot of homework to make sure you get the right fit.

Number one, really trust your players that are already here. If they tell you that they're not a good fit, trust it and believe it because they spend the time with them while they're away from the coache' office. If you have a good culture, they know what type of person belongs and should be in our culture. If they come back to me and say no coach, I just don't think they're a good fit, I try to listen to them as often as I can.

Q: When you speak about culture, what do you mean and what are you aiming for?

A: You're talking about taking a collection of young men and you're trying to take them on a journey together to try and form a team. And so when you think about what you want in there, you've got to have like-minded people who are committed to school and not just here to further their football career only.

And second thing is you've got to make sure you have character people. You can't hide your profile in a small community. In a city if you're six-foot-three and 240 pounds, you probably may be able to blend in, but you won't be able to blend in in a small community like Antigonish. You really have to understand the importance of respecting the community.

We're also talking about being good teammates. I really believe that cohesion is one of the No. 1 factors for successes of any organization. Then people who are passionate about what they do ... getting up at 6:30 a.m. for a workout and training in the off season, people who really enjoy what they do. When you think about all those things and mash it together, you just look for people that just want to get better and have a growth mindset.

Q: What can you say about being undefeated in Atlantic University Sport?

A:  We'd love to be able to keep it going. It's a big challenge, it's hard to win. There's people on the other side that are working hard too and competing and then, once you've been on the top … everybody is looking to knock you down and knock you off, and they're going to give you your best shots, their best shots. So you have to be prepared for it.

Q: What does it mean to you to be named coach of the year?

A: That might be the truest team award of all the awards given out because you can't have individual success as a head coach without being surrounded by a terrific team. It starts with your family and they have to be very supportive — my wife and my kids. Then it's your support staff and your coaching staff that are around you. And then it's also your players. I mean, the players have to buy in. They're the heartbeat of the team. Then there's the great alumni and fan base. You need that support group around there to make everything tick. So this is truly a team award.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.