REGINA \u2014 It might seem like the time of year where Saskatchewan Roughriders communications director Arielle Zerr might be able to relax a bit \u2014 what with it being the dead of winter and the Canadian Football League season being three months in the rear view mirror and all \u2014 but that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n
No, once the team\u2019s season ended this past November, a new season immediately began for the communications staff, with tons of player interviews to schedule, press releases to write and announcements to make. In fact, this time of year is among the busiest of them all as the free agency period moves into high gear.<\/p>\n
Then throw in everything surrounding a certain championship trophy, and things go even more into overdrive.<\/p>\n
It all makes for busy, busy times, but Zerr wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n
She joined The SportsCage\u2019s Barney Shynkaruk and Teagan Witko during National Women in Sports Day on Wednesday afternoon to talk about how things are going after the Roughriders Grey Cup win in November and how she came about her unique position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a busy time for us right now and it\u2019s an exciting time, obviously, because we\u2019re building on what was an incredible season in 2025 and now just trying to do it all over again,\u201d Zerr said.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, Zerr never had working for the Roughriders on her mind in the earliest stages of her career. While studying journalism in university, she originally planned to get into communications but ended up taking a sports broadcasting path instead. That led to a moment not long after getting into the business that cemented her love for it.<\/p>\n
While covering the 2012 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Canalta Cup Final between the Weyburn Red Wings and Humboldt Broncos, Zerr interviewed Wings forward Miguel Pereira after his overtime goal in Game 3, with the on-ice chat taking place in front of more than 1,500 fans packed into Weyburn\u2019s Crescent Point Place.<\/p>\n
As one might expect, the environment was utterly insane, and the kind of moment that would leave anyone working that kind of game in awe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Weyburn are slamming the glass, it\u2019s just so loud in there, and I thought to myself that if I could do this for the rest of my life, it would never feel like work,\u201d Zerr said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s true. I can tell you winning the Grey Cup didn\u2019t feel like work, everything leading up to that was busy, but in that moment, yeah, it\u2019s an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerr wasn\u2019t all that involved in sports as an athlete growing up, but that did little to dampen her love the games she watched, as she told participants in the Roughrider Foundation Girls Summit this past October.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy big message to them is you can love sport and be involved in sport and not have to be an athlete,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the competitiveness, I love the team, I love the environment, I love the emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerr isn\u2019t the only woman working in the Roughriders organization, of course, and she took the moment on National Girls and Women in Sports Day to point out the hard work so many of them do, using the Grey Cup parade turnaround as a prime example.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club hires capable, strong women who are so talented at their jobs, and you\u2019re seeing me here today, but you\u2019re not seeing the other women who work for our club in many different capacities,\u201d Zerr said, adding that the craziness of the Grey Cup win was nearly equalled by how efficiently things came together when it came to the celebrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on a plane the next morning with the team, but when we got back there was a rally and the parade route was planned. There\u2019s so many things that go into it, and it truly is a team. We support a team but the team behind the team is a great bunch of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel so privileged to work for a club that values women and their contributions, and shoutout to people behind the scenes who did all the work to get ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerr is the only female communications director in the Canadian Football League, but she\u2019s in no way on an island. In fact, the exact opposite is true, as the relationships she\u2019s formed with her fellow directors over her seven years in the position have made things that much easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the cool things about the job is connecting with other people,\u201d she said. \u201cI have people I bounce ideas off and I feel really supported, not just within the team but around the CFL, and I do learn a lot. If I\u2019m looking for an answer to a question or need a vibe check, I have people across the league I can work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how does one get into such a position? First of all, prepare and work hard to develop the skills needed to do the job. And then, almost as importantly, don\u2019t be afraid to take your shot when the time comes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just have to jump when the opportunity is there and have the confidence in yourself to know you\u2019re ready to do it before you get the job,\u201d Zerr said. \u201cI was just like \u2018I don\u2019t know if this job is going come open again any time soon\u2019 so I had to fight that inner voice that said \u2018you\u2019re not ready\u2019 and say ]you\u2019re going to get ready\u2019. So I shot my shot and if I didn\u2019t get it, I\u2019ll do something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
As mentioned, Zerr and the Roughriders are currently in the midst of free agency, with plenty of news from the team and across the CFL coming out in the coming days. Be sure to keep an eye on SportsCage for all the happenings with the Grey Cup champions as the 2026 CFL season approaches.
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REGINA \u2014 It might seem like the time of year where Saskatchewan Roughriders communications director Arielle Zerr might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[3878,49,48,521,522,520,3290,4398,27684,27683,1893,4401,27682,4400,4399,82],"class_list":["post-459793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-contests","tag-country-music","tag-gx94","tag-manitoba-news","tag-radio","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-news","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459793","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=459793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}