1968 Staff Changes

1968 Staff Changes

Joseph Curry’s retirement left Ottawa with a hole they have not had to fill since 1954. However, everyone knew the man that would replace the league’s longest-serving head coach. Once Jean Matieau had been hired as the Offensive Coordinator right out of retirement, it seemed pretty obvious that the team was aiming to have Matieau be the eventual successor to Curry. So within a week of Curry’s retirement, the Royals introduced Matieau and the team’s 3rd Head Coach. 

Around the rest of the league, many coaches and GMs were extended. Maurice Evanson extended with the Blue Wings, GM Joseph Johnson and HC Roy Aguirre are staying with the Tigers, GM Peter Brooks and HC Garrett Boone are continuing with the Gold Stars, HC Jimmy Sargent earned a new contract with Montreal, and Toronto is bringing back GM Howard Stinton and HC Ronald Martin.

There were not many coaches being let go, but there were still some changes. The biggest being out of Halifax. The Mariners officially let go of HC Urick Wilkins, despite the 3-year extension he signed last season. The firing comes after back-to-back seasons where the team has struggled in the second half of the season, which led to the team missing the playoffs this past season despite being looked at as a championship contender. Halifax’s search for a new coach took a little more effort than the Royals’. They interviewed several candidates: their own OC Alfred Denieu and DC Phillip Little, Buffalo coordinators OC Soni Dionne and DC Steve Pallard, and a pair of free agents in Ben McMillan and Perry Powell. The finalists for the job ended up being Denieu, Dionne, and McMillan. Denieu certainly had the disadvantage over the other candidates, having not had any head coaching experience, but the Mariners still really like him as a coach. However, in the end, the Mariners would go for a coach that absolutely deserves a job in the league and has surprisingly been out of the loop for a couple of seasons, Ben McMillan. 

McMillan has quite the resume as he served as the head coach of the Independents for 6 seasons where he had a 45-25-2 regular-season record. He was able to win a championship with the team, but his continued playoff losses led to his firing in 1965. There will be questions about whether or not McMillan can get the team success in the postseason, but they need to get there first, which their previous coach was unable to do.

Urick Wilkins would not stay unemployed for long as a spot would open up in a dramatic fashion in Indiana. Johnathan Fox has been one of the most controversial coaches in the NAAF over the past couple of seasons. Fox joined the NAAF as a well-known college coach as the DC of the Victors. After just one season, Fox was hired as the Head Coach of the Independents. Fox’s season with Boston was brutal and he would be fired after having several outbursts with his coordinators and posting a horrid 2-10 season. He returned to Indiana, but this season did not go as smoothly as his first. Over the first half of the season, Fox and HC Dannell Willis reportedly continuously butted heads which did not help the Victors during their 1-5 start. Eventually, Willis cut down on Fox’s contributions as the team rolled back to 6-6. Fox quit immediately after the season where he said he would not return to the NAAF. Within a few days of Wilkins’ firing, the Victors would announce the former Mariners’ coach as their new Defensive Coordinator. Wilkins does have an old connection to Dannell Willis, as he was his Defensive Coordinator in Buffalo during the late 1950s.

The remainder of coaches stayed put, leaving Jean Matieau to fill his Offensive Coordinator role. As he began his search, he would find out he also needed a Defensive Coordinator as Matthew Carson decided to take a head coaching role in college after 9 seasons with the Royals. Matieau personally thanked Carson, a coach he worked with over all 9 of those seasons and wished him the best of luck in his new endeavours. 

Matieau refocused on the job at hand and quickly began interviewing for the roles. He ended up interviewing 7 coaches for the Offensive Coordinator role. Those coaches were former NAAF Head Coaches Perry Powell and Dean Parrish, former NAAF Offensive Coordinators Kent Winters, Theodore Ortiz, and Wayne Ball, and finally a pair of former players, Johnnie Stafford and Jean Mathieu-Baptiste. Overall, Matieau was looking more for a coach that would be able to focus more on the development of players, while Matieau himself would be focused on the play-calling and strategy. That cut a few out of the mix, but the finalists became Ortiz, Stafford, Ball, and Mathieu-Baptiste. After deliberation, Matieau finally went with Wayne Ball. Ball had previously spent a couple of seasons with the Halifax Mariners in 1963 and 1964, where he helped a struggling QB Caldwell Higgins III to easily one of his best seasons. Ball should provide a good level of development for younger players and be able to support Matieau’s offensive game-plan. 

As for the defensive spot, there would only be 5 coaches interviewed. Those coaches are former NAAF Defensive Coordinator Jerome Morris, a younger college coach in Colton Forrest, and 3 former players in Olaf Viktorsson, Aengus Lynch, and Frazier Brooks. With the rumours of Viktorsson being interviewed, the rumblings that Matieau’s former teammate had the job locked down started to spread. However, the world would be shocked when former London Tiger, Aengus Lynch was named the Defensive Coordinator. Lynch was known for being a general on the field, directing the Tigers’ defence over his long career with the team. Matieau saw that as the key difference-maker in the decision and hopes that Lynch can translate that ability to a building a great defensive strategy with one of the best young defences in the league.  

“Look, I love Olaf just as much as everyone, but I have to make the best decision for this team, and I felt that Aengus brought that extra element to the team,” said Matieau in response to some of the outrage that he didn’t give Viktorsson the job. Of course, this was before the public found out that he had hired Viktorsson as a Defensive Development Coach.  

TL;DR

HALIFAX
OUT
HC Urick Wilkins
IN
HC Ben McMillan - from Rhode Island State University (previously BOS)

INDIANA
OUT
DC Johnathan Fox
IN
DC Urick Wilkins - from HFX HC

OTTAWA
OUT
HC Joseph Curry
DC Matthew Carson
IN
HC Jean Matieau - from OTT OC
OC Wayne Ball - from Haynes University (previously HFX)
DC Aengus Lynch - former LDN Tiger