Who wants to be the next Angus Reid?

Hi there, it’s Hayley again! Did you enjoy long weekend?

For me, it was really exciting weekend. I’ve been here with my mom and younger brother - who is not a sports guy- for almost 12 months and my daddy came to Vancouver last Saturday! We are leaving soon (we will be going home to Korea in a couple of weeks) so he came to have a vacation with us. As soon as he arrived home we talked about the records of our favorite baseball team :P

We had dinner together after a long time and we went to Victoria on BC day. It was great weekend!

Anyways, back to the football blog.

Before the long weekend I visited a football camp that Football BC technical director Dino Geremia runs and helping him out was Angus Reid, who retired from BC Lions earlier this year.
When he had a break, I had a chance to talk with him.

How did you come here to coach kids today?

- I’ve known Dino who runs this program since I was maybe ten years old. He helped me through all of my young age with sports, he was always there for me. Then I grew up playing football in this province. I was at the young level, high school level, college level and eventually the pro level. So for me, I have two connections. I played a sport here and I’ve known Dino since I was young. So anytime Dino calls and has to deal with the helping kids playing sports I always say yes.

How do you like coaching kids?

- I love it. it helps keep me young and it keeps me around the sport a little bit. I’ve been involved in  sports since I was young so I can’t just leave, I need to be around it. This is a fun way for me to feel young again and help give back a lot of what I’ve learned from a lot of coaches in my life. Now I can help pass it on to the next generation.

When you coach kids, don’t you want to go back to the field?

- Yes, I do. Until I get out there and my body starts aching, sore and I realize I’m not young like these guys anymore. So in my head, in my heart ‘Yes’ but my body says ‘You’re done. It’s over.’ It’s okay. I live through them now. 

How is your retirement?

- Retirement is less painful, it’s good. It’s funny though I’m probably busier than I ever was when I was playing football because playing football was a pretty simple life. I went to practice and worked out, I went home and rested to do it again (the next day). But now I’m working in the business world and I do the radio show, TV show and write for newspapers. There is sort of time to do everything because I’m not going to practice all day long. So it’s very different but it’s very busy. 

Do you like your life after retirement?

- I do. I mean, I will miss playing football forever. I think if I had my way I would stay 30 years old and be a football player for the rest my life. But that’s not a reality, it’s never going to happen. So I’m okay with not playing anymore. It was the time for me to move on and I’m happy with what I’m doing now. But being able to come out to these kind of things gives me  enough football still to stay around it. 

If one of these kids came up to you and said ‘I want to be the next Angus Reid’, what advice would you have for them?

- Do as much as you can. I’m proud of myself on asking for as much help from everyone I could and then actually working on the advice given to me. A lot of people talk about how bad they want things but actually they are not working hard on it. 

When I made the decision at the young age this is what I wanted to do, I asked help from everybody and I was lucky that most people helped but actually I followed the advice as hard as I possibly could and I never stopped trying to get better. I worked on the fundamentals, techniques and I could never get the half of it. It became all my days and it’s hard for kids nowadays because video games are pretty good now. And I didn’t have to do the internet and time wasting things as much. 

But they’ve got to make decision this is what they want, find a few friends who want the same thing and make it what you do with your day. And really, really, really work hard to do it. You are not only getting good but you’ll be proud of who you are and that is so big with today’s youth to find something to be proud of. You can feel good about yourself and build your self confidence. Because even if football doesn’t last there will be someone who is not scared work for dreams, and to be who they really want to be. That’s a big, big deal. 

The advice he gave to kids was not only for kids who want to be a football player but for everyone who has their own dream and also for me. As you know (or you don’t know) I want to be a sports journalist. But I just say ‘I want to be a sports journalist.’ I hope I would be but I actually do nothing and sometimes I don’t read even one sports article for a day.

As Angus advised I should ask help and listen to advice and learn form it. 

I’m so honoured and happy to meet him and get this advice before finishing my intern work with Football BC. I’ll keep it in mind to achieve my goal. 

Thank you Angus!