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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Corey_Mace_2025_001.jpg\")
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Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 head coach Corey Mace led his team to a win over the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup (Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n
And that singular drive is one of the driving forces behind Mace\u2019s meteoric rise up the coaching ranks. After all, Mace is still just over a decade removed from his last game as a player when he helped Calgary win the 102nd Grey Cup in 2014. Since then, it\u2019s been nothing but success with the Stamps, Argonauts, and now in two seasons calling the shots for the Roughriders.<\/p>\n
And yet, even with that laser focus on getting the job done, Mace is also aware of the impact he\u2019s making.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as being somebody that maybe someone takes inspiration from watching from afar, you know, that\u2019s an honour, regardless of what it is they\u2019re pulling from me,\u201d Mace admitted between a workout and continued preparation for CFL Free Agency, which opens later this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo sit here and say that I\u2019m not aware of (the significance) of being a Black coach or a Black Canadian coach, you know, I\u2019d be lying to you. I know what that means. I know what that means to me. And I just want to try to be the best coach for our staff and for our players so that we can be the best team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mace has had a unique journey in football, on both sides of the border. Growing up in Port Moody, BC and a graduate of Port Moody High School, Mace went south to continue his career at Palomar College in California and then the University of Wyoming. He then spent two seasons with the NFL\u2019s Buffalo Bills before returning to Canada to join the Stamps in 2010.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those experiences have given Mace a unique perspective on the progress that\u2019s been made. No one can deny professional sports, football included, has much work to do when it comes to hiring from diverse backgrounds. But Mace says strides are being made.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing around Black players, being around Black coaches from both sides of the border here, (they\u2019re) top tier. I\u2019ve certainly been around more than enough Black coaches and players to know that they\u2019re more than qualified to get the job done. So, for Black History Month, I think it\u2019s important to just keep bringing it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as Mace\u2019s star keeps rising, one thing that continues to keep him grounded is the locker room. It\u2019s a place where people from all different backgrounds and walks of life have to come together for a common goal. And for Mace, that\u2019s important\u2026and not just during Black History Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, not just February\u2026it\u2019s all 12 months, you know what I mean? You talk about the CFL, and we\u2019ve got Global players from all over the place. Guys from all different pockets of the United States and all across Canada, right? They literally might not speak the same language. They have different understandings of what reality and life is.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just have to have empathy for each other, man. These guys, they put each other first and then listen and learn from one another. It\u2019s empowering to see when people do that how far they can go to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corey Mace didn\u2019t set out to be a trailblazer. As we celebrate Black History Month in February, however,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-459654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}