A Guelph football coach is getting his flowers from his hometown CFL team.
Robert Puttock, the head coach of the St. James high school football team, was honoured by the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats for his dedication to football and someone who “leads by example.”
Puttock received the Michael V. Young ‘What Ya Gotta Do’ award at a gala event at Hamilton’s Tim Horton’s Field last week.
“It was genuine surprise,” he said of getting nominated. “It’s always one of those things where it’s nice to be (recognized). I put a lot of time into football, so it’s nice to know that other people notice that.”
He recalled getting the email notification a week before, not thinking the content would be what it was.
“(The subject line) didn’t say football or anything, it was a name I didn’t recognize, and ‘award’ in the subject head, so I figured a student must have put me as a reference for some scholarship type award, which happens pretty regularly,” he said.
Puttock’s fingerprints have been all over football programs in the area. He has been coaching within the Wellington Catholic District School Board since 2016, but his coaching days pre-date his time with the board.
As for who put his name forward for the nomination, he still isn’t sure, even after asking some of “his usual suspects.”
Either way, the fourth-year coach – and third-year teacher – at St. James kept humble, saying he doesn’t coach for the sake of gaining recognition.
“I love football, I love working with kids and I think the two of them go tremendously together,” he said.
“It is the ultimate team game. Everyone has to do their part, and it’s something that we spend lots of time in. I watch film with the kids every day … I like doing it, and I love seeing kids getting into it, and being able to build on their skill set.”
It’s appropriate the Hamilton native is getting recognition from a team he grew up watching.
Admittedly, he wasn’t the biggest CFL fan as a kid, but when prompted, he said the Ti-Cats were his team.
“Probably some of the first games I went to were Ti-Cat games,” he said. “Growing up, I had some family friends who played for the Ti-Cats. They were playing when I was kind of in the end of elementary, early high school days.
“That was one of the first times I got to be closer to the high level of football, and seeing what the people I knew had to (go) through.”
Of note, he remembers being 12 or 13 years old and taking the field at the old Ivor Wynne Stadium, with its old fashioned astroturf that “can only be described as ‘like a library carpet.’”
“Gosh, that surface was something,” Puttock said.
A couple of his current players, as well as a former player, joined him at the event.
“It wasn’t overly large (of an event), but they certainly had put some time and thought into the evening,” he said. “They recognized about a half dozen coaches, and about the same number of players from – they refer to it as the Hamilton area – so I guess that includes Guelph out to Niagara and everything in between. It was a nice evening to be a part of.”
