MontrealAlouettes.com
by Steve Lyberopoulos
MONTREAL– There comes an inevitable crossroads in every athlete’s life. One that is inescapable, one that always seems to arrive in the proverbial blink of an eye, and one that is ripe with that desired by most anyone: opportunity.
Anwar Stewart needs no introduction. Hulking defensive lineman on the outside, pesky jester on the inside, the team’s rookie Defensive Quality Control coach is instantly recognizable to any Alouettes fan both on and off the field. 11 seasons, 4 Grey Cup championships, 5 All-Star nominations and 2 Most Outstanding Defensive Player awards sit atop the mantle of the man endearingly referred to by his peers as Stew. Born in Panama City, Florida, Stewart played the near totality of his CFL career with the Alouettes where he carved a reputation for himself as an opposing quarterback’s singular worst nightmare. While Stewart earned his clout through his individual play and accolades, his excellence was reciprocated by those who surrounded him at the time, given he celebrated victory alongside the likes of Anthony Calvillo and Ben Cahoon – individuals equally accomplished at their respected positions.
Some athletes don’t know when to let go and call it quits, clinging to the glory of days long gone by. That wasn’t the case for Stewart, who returned for a final hurrah with Montreal in 2013 before riding off into the sunset at 37 years old. Perhaps pulling from his superb ability to get to opposing quarterbacks, Stewart seized the opportunity presented to him last spring when Alouettes head coach Tom Higgins came calling, stepping into the coaching ranks after a successful 13 years crouching down at the line of scrimmage.
Now 10 official regular season weeks, not counting training camp and exhibitions, into his coaching career, Stewart has fully bought into his new profession; although, it has come at the expense of something he used to hold very dear.
“The biggest transition from player to coach is that I don’t get my naps,” laughs Stewart. “I have to be in at 6, 6:15 in the morning and sometimes I don’t get home until 8 or 9. The hours are a lot longer, and there’s a lot more work that goes into it from a coach to a player aspect.”
As a player, Stewart sat in on meetings where coaches would pinpoint Xs and Os on a whiteboard and go through game tape. Now a coach, Stewart is the one breaking down film with the help of technology such as DVSport, a football replay video system used by coaches on the staff.
Stewart’s learning extends beyond the technology he uses on a daily basis — he’s also had to learn how to fit into the workflow of coaches, such as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe, he reports to.
“I’ve had to learn what my coaches want and when they want it each and every day so that they don’t have to come to me and ask ‘Stew where’s this, Stew where’s that?’. I’ll have it on their desk, and they’ll know it’s going to be there. At the end of the day, that’s one of the reasons I think they hired me.”
Still, there were a few surprises awaiting coach Anwar Stewart.
“The most surprising thing is probably the way that you’re treated. I think that there are a lot more things that you receive as a player than as a coach. But I really do think that the coaches deserve as much as the players because of the time we put in to make them better, doing the homework, to make sure they’re prepared week in and week out and day in and day out.”
Because of how a football team’s week-to-week schedule is organized, it’s hard for Stewart to describe a typical single work day given that what he’s doing on any one day depends on both the schedule posted by coach Higgins and when the team is slated to hit the field.
“It really depends on the day. We have Day 0, Then we have 1, 2, 3. Day 4 is the day before the game. And then we have game day. If I come in the day after the game, my job is to record all the calls from the game before. It’s important the coaches know what plays were called so they know which play they’re looking at when they’re grading the film. From there, I have to deal with a lot of the stats: I record tackles, missed tackles, YAC [yards after catch], yards, etc.”
Stewart’s job is as meticulous as it is repetitive. The moral of the story: you can never, ever dissect enough game tape.
“From there I break down the film again,” he continues. “I have to figure out and see what the our team did and the opposing team did, so that the coaches can understand what to do on 1st and 10 or 2nd and long, for example, when we play them again.”
The importance of Stewart recording and documenting playcalls and situational outcomes from any drive shouldn’t be understated.
“It’s something that has to be done,” he emphasizes. “On Day 1, I make sure the scout books are ready to go for the team we’re set to play against, and that we know and list down all of their favourite run and passing plays. Then I have to make sure it’s all aligned with the scripts we’re going to call during the practice.”
While, officially, he’s the man pouring over film and inputting numbers in an elaborate system, Stewart is, for all intents and purposes, unofficially, another scout-type personality in GM Jim Popp’s stable of talent evaluators. A fixer, even.
“I’m more of a behind the scenes type of guy,” he says. “If I don’t do my job right, the computer will spit out wrong information and stats that will end up hurting us. I have to make sure that everything is correct, everything that I’m looking at is exactly what the coach need.”
If there’s one thing Stewart took from his life as a player, it’s confidence. Not one to shy away from dropping a well-deserved crack here or there, Stewart nevertheless concedes there is much left for him to learn about the ins and outs of what he’s been entrusted with doing. That’s left the door open to some good-natured ribbing care of the rest of the staff.
“They’re a little tough on me but I like it, I enjoy it. Sometimes I go too fast and I have to slow down. From a player now to a coach, it’s something you have to learn. There’s so much going into coaching that as a player I didn’t know. There’s a lot of meetings, a lot of cut and paste, a lot of thinking ahead.”
Play design is a consideration that goes beyond what would seem to be a cohesive combination of route-running, rushing, and blocking.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘If I design this play, will it work against this team, will it work against this one?’ I’m just learning from the coaches. One of the cool things is that I get to sit in on the brainstorm meetings and they’ll ask me what I think, I think that’s pretty cool, and, as a player or a coach, you just have to continue to grow to be the best you can be.”
Stewart’s playing career set the bar for his coaching career loftily high, according to him.
“I was a great player, so I have to be a great coach now!”
Hardly any seconds pass until a grin takes shape on his face, indicating that was the latest in an endless line of jokes. Stewart concedes, however, that there’s an element of frustration in being a bystander watching instead of playing when his team isn’t quite performing as it should.
But that doesn’t mean he can’t positively influence the outcome of the game through those meant to follow in his footsteps.
“I remember that as, an older player, I tried to teach John Bowman and Chip Cox the way of things – back when they were young! Now, they’re the old guys and they have to teach the young guys how to do it. That’s just how success comes. I think that if you ball it up and keep everything to yourself, then you’re not a leader because you’re not making everyone else around you better.”
As for the current edition of the Montreal Alouettes, Stewart is bullish on the team’s prospects for the balance of the season. On the tail of a 2-game win streak that has vaulted the Alouettes to the top of the CFL’s East Division, Stewart displayed restrained praise for a group he believes is on the cusp of maturing and realizing its true potential.
“I think back now and I kind of get what we were doing: myself, Anthony [Calvillo], [Scott] Flory, [Ben] Cahoon. We had a lot of success and most importantly we had a lot of great people to learn from. It doesn’t just come from being a talented team. We definitely are a “talented team”, but the guys have to understand that your work doesn’t stop when you leave here. You have to go home, study, watch film, come in with something to give your other teammates because that shows ‘oh, he means business.’”
Given the team has gone through some ups and downs this season, Stewart’s optimism has helped keep the conversation and mindset moving in a positive direction.
“We’re picking it up, getting better every week, and I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to start scaring a lot of teams. I’m just really excited about the second half of the season.”
As his rookie coaching season trucks along, Stewart looks to have seamlessly flipped the switch from star player to up-and-coming coach, though he is more aware than anyone else that his journey, along with the accompanying effort required, has only just begun.
“Whatever you do, do it 100%. Not 110%, because you only have 100%! [John] Bowman can’t give me that other 10%, no one else can give me that other 10%. You only have 100%. You have to do the best you can do and if it doesn’t work out after that, you’ll know you gave everything you had.”
“You have to follow your passion,” he declares. “Because that’s what motivates you.”
Coaching, it would seem, is one Anwar Stewart’s passions.
