WINNIPEG — Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the Saskatchewan Roughriders quest for a championship.
The Riders enjoyed a successful regular season in head coach Corey Mace’s first season with the team, finishing second in the West Division before taking down the BC Lions at home for a trip to the Western Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The journey came to an end on Saturday at Princess Auto Stadium, when the Riders lost a 38-22 battle to the Bombers. Despite not accomplishing their ultimate goal, the Riders know this can be the start of something special.
“It meant everything to me, personally,” Mace said about his first year as the head coach in Saskatchewan. “Just the vision of what it would look like surrounding myself with people I love. I care about growing the relationships with those men in the locker room, people in the organization. It’s been fantastic. That’s why this sucks, but we’ll grow as a team.
“I’ll grow as a coach. A lot of us will be better for it. There’s a lot of people who are sick right now in that locker room, and maybe someway, somehow (this is going) to be motivational for us as we move forward.”
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The Riders started the season looking like a team on a mission, winning five of their first six games on their way to a first-place position in the West. The team then went on a seven-game winless streak (six losses, one tie) as quarterback Trevor Harris dealt with an injury that sidelined for him a few weeks. Finally, the Green and White won four straight heading into Week 21, when they rested their starters in a loss to the Stampeders.
The final 9-8-1 record doesn’t fully encompass all the progression and resiliency this team has shown throughout the season.
“I love this group,” said Harris. “This group has grown a lot. It’s battled lot of adversity.
“This group was a fun group to be around and I’m just not ready for it to be over. And unfortunately, me wanting for it not to be done doesn’t matter because we lost in the (Western Final) and Winnipeg did their thing tonight.”
The thing about football and sports in general is that there are a lot of turnover in the salary-cap era. If you find success, teams will want to sip from the same well that brought you there.
That doesn’t mean that some organizations can’t set themselves apart by having the right leadership in place. Harris believes that’s exactly what the Riders have accomplished.
“I see this organization taking a giant leap in terms of progression to where the fans deserve to be,” added Harris. “I know Corey Mace, (vice president of football operations and general manager) Jeremy O’Day and (assistant general manager) Kyle Carson, they’ll do a tremendous job in terms of putting the roster together and making this a championship caliber roster and team next year.”