MontrealAlouettes.com
by Steve Lyberopoulos
MONTREAL – The old adage has it that playing on the road is always a more challenging ordeal than playing at home, and the Montreal Alouettes are readying to find out just how much of that time-tested wisdom holds true.
Having already played four games in the friendly and familiar confines of McGill Stadium, you can take it to the bank that no other team in the CFL has suited up in coloured threads more often than Tom Higgins’s squad through their first six contests. But that trend’s about to be bucked as the team is packing up to head out west and spend the next two weeks in Regina and Winnipeg in what will amount to, perhaps to the disbelief of some, their longest foray away from the 514 this year.
Players are creatures of habit, and, as it turns out, so are the men pacing back and forth on the sidelines.
“When you play on the road, your routine doesn’t change up all that much. The challenge is essentially you have to bring your office with you: your computers, your technology that you need in order to break down the film and do your scout cards,” offers coach Higgins.
Higgins, who celebrated his 60th birthday a month ago, knows a thing or two about a makeshift home away from home, having spent his fair share of nights in hotels over the course of his 22 years as a player, coach, GM, and director of officiating in the CFL.
“You try to make it as normal as possible. They say that for every hour that you change time zones, you need a day to recover.”
There’s a side to coach Higgins fans might not know – that of a man who takes meticulous pride in plotting out the Xs and Os in the itinerary given to each player prior to games on the road. The most important thing, according to him, is to make them feel at home, and the way to do that is to stick with what’s familiar.
“We’ll meet at 9 o’clock, similar to like we do here [at home]. We’ll have a special teams meeting afterwards at exactly the same time, and so on. Basically we’ll treat it as if it was a normal week and that way it’ll keep the athletes focused.”
In fact, Higgins sees playing on the road as the best kind of learning experience.
“[Staying on the road] is an opportunity to get a feel for what it’s like to get to a Grey Cup. The best teams enjoy playing on the road.”
Beyond simulating the volatile conditions surrounding a championship run, Higgins is a believer in the bonding powers of a cross-country voyage. Specifically, bowling is one of said bonding powers the Alouettes coach subscribes to.
And, having coached on both coasts, what of the CFL’s great East/West divide on display this season?
West Division teams (BC, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg) have combined to post an astounding record of 23-10, while East Division teams (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton) have yet to crack the 10-win plateau altogether, sitting on a paltry 6 in comparison.
“There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. This is really an odd year for the dominance the west is showing over the east.”
The numbers might not tell a favourable story for East Division teams, but Higgins doesn’t intend for his Alouettes to write the next chapter in that book this Saturday night in Riderville.
“[Playing on the road out west] could be a turning point for us, and one of the better things that’s happened to our football team this year. We’re going to go in and make it a positive.”
