For most it is an honour we will never receive but for Kelly Bates that honour is about to become a reality.
Bates will be one of five members of the area inducted into the Humboldt and District Sports Hall of Fame at their 2017 induction ceremony on June 24.
Bates says his thoughts went all over the place when he first learned he was among this year’s class, but says he sees it as a great opportunity to say thank you.
“Obviously it started when I was very young in Humboldt so that’s really the way I look at it is it’s a public way to say thank you to a lot of people that have helped me.”
Growing up Bates played as many sports as he could and says the people in Humboldt played a big part in his early years.
“I wasn’t the student that I could be in terms of being a high school student and there was some very amazing people that never gave up on me and always believed in me and always pushed me in the right direction.”
Bates played two years of high school football with the Mohawks playing on both the offensive and defensive line, coming one win short of a provincial championship, losing to Melville in 1992.
After wrapping up his high school career, Bates moved on to play for the Saskatoon Hilltops, where he captured a National Junior Football championship in 1996, as a right guard.
Bates then moved on to the University of Saskatchewan where he starred as a member of the Huskies, playing a key role in the Huskies’ 1998 Vanier Cup championship as a starting left guard.
After four years with the Huskies, Bates was drafted in the fourth round 32nd overall by the B.C. Lions.
Over the course of his 11 year CFL career, Bates played 146 games, starting 114 of those and won one Grey Cup as a player.
Bates spent time with four different franchises including the Lions, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Edmonton Eskimos.
With his career winding down and his production dwindling Bates moved into a role as offensive assistant with the Lions where he served for the first three weeks before being brought out of retirement for weeks 4-8.
Bates returned to the sideline for week nine and remained there helping coach the Lions to the 2011 Grey Cup championship.
With such a long career Bates says there are a few moments that stand out for him.
“Just from making my first trip to Toronto to play football, to playing my first game as a member of the Lions in the CFL at Taylor Field. It’s things like that where I’ve been very fortunate to be a member of some very good teams and played in some very big games and they’re all special in one way, shape, form, or another.”
Most players have a welcome to the professional ranks moment, but Bates says his was not so much about being welcomed to professional football but more about learning about himself, noting he remembers a time where he thought if he did not pick it up he would not be there anymore.
“The one great thing for me about the game of football was that it had so many parallels. The success that I was able to have on the field paralleled the way I was off the field and it took a while to figure it out but once I understood that football’s just part of it and if I want to be good at that I have to work hard at everything.”
Bates says football taught him a number of traits including responsibility, and work ethic, traits needed to be successful on and off the field, he says.
After winning the Grey Cup as an offensive assistant in 2011, Bates was promoted to running back coach and Canadian draft coordinator, a position held for three seasons.
Having quickly transitioned from player to coach, a number of the players Bates was coaching were former teammates, which can make for an interesting dynamic, but he says it is no different than becoming a young high school teacher.
It all comes down to preparation, he says.
“If you do not work your butt off to prepare the people you are teaching or coaching they’ll see through you pretty quickly and you won’t last,” he said.
“So keeping that in mind and understanding my ultimate goal of what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, it doesn’t really matter where you come from. You’re either going to be good enough at it or you’re not and they’re either going to believe in you or they’re not.”
After his third season as RB coach and Canadian draft coordinator, Bates was hired as the new head coach of the Simon Fraser Clan, the only Canadian University competing in the NCAA.
He says coaching was a path he was always looking to take, and thinks that might be part of the reason he studied education at the U of S.
“I think part of my love for the game is the fact that I had some great teachers and some great coaches that greatly impacted me when I was young and left a great impression.”
He said that gave him great clarity, noting he always knew what he wanted to do, the only question was where he would do it.
“Fortunate for me there was some people at the level I was playing at that believed I could do it.”
Today, Bates continues to coach the Clan, but makes a special trip back to the Humboldt area to host the Kelly Bates Football Camp, which just recently celebrated its 12th anniversary.
The camp itself is a testament to the people in the community of Humboldt, says Bates, who notes that it was started by former Mohawks head football coach Shaun Gardiner.
“(He) showed great vision and I was just fortunate enough to be someone that was able to be a part of that idea and it’s taken off from there.”
Bates says the thing that makes the camp so special is that it provides opportunities to bring people who love, coach, and play the game of football at a high level together to help coach aspiring football players.
“(They) probably wouldn’t have had that opportunity especially when I was growing up and that was important to me.”
Bates says the camp provides him and the coaching staff with a vehicle to teach them not only about football but about dedication.
He says the biggest piece of advice he can give to someone is that we as individuals can control very little but what we can control is our work ethic.
“I can control the effort I put forth day in and day out and that’s one thing that football has given me the opportunity to do and I certainly try to make that an impactful statement on the kids that come to the camp.”
Bates, along with Brad Lauer, Wendy Toye, Jerome Engele, and the 2007-2008 Humboldt Broncos will all be inducted into the hall at this year’s induction ceremony on June 24.
To read more about Jerome Engele here.
For more information on the remaining inductees check out the Humboldt Journal in the coming weeks leading up to the June 24 induction ceremony.
