BC Lions

BCLions.com Staff

Typically, when Wally Buono returns to British Columbia from his annual Hawaiian respite, the local temperature is balmy and livable.  This year, the club’s VP of football operations and GM came home to a dump of snow and frosty temperatures, and if the weather wasn’t a reminder that winter had arrived in the month he was away, then the list of free agents on his Grey Cup-winning roster definitely has him busy.

Last week, he secured two of a number of pieces currently in limbo when defensive lineman Khalif Mitchell and centre Angus Reid signed new deals with the club. Mitchell, whose refreshing approach to the business of football had him doing an about-face on some NFL offers, felt the CFL approach was a better fit at least in the short term. For Reid, it was simply a matter of allowing himself to endure yet another season of physical abuse in the trenches.

“I guess in some ways, the first two signings of 2012 symbolize the importance of those positions to our team last season,” said Buono. “Our ability to control the line of scrimmage in the most important games of the year was the number one reason why we were able to win. Giving your most important player a chance to execute the offence and making the opposing team’s quarterback uncomfortable is quite honestly what this game is all about.”
 
With the return of Khalif Mitchell, the Lions are assured of at least two-thirds of their 2011 trio of terror will be in uniform (Mitchell, Eric Taylor, Aaron Hunt). Whether or not Hunt and the club can reach an agreement on a new contract remains to be seen, but the challenge of keeping everyone will be a daunting one.

“Each year, we have to balance our desire to win a championship with the limitations of the salary management system as well as our desire to be competitive in years to come,” noted Buono. “We can’t mortgage the short-term future on three or four players and hope to be competitive down the line, so it’s difficult to make everyone happy. I certainly sympathize with a player’s desire to maximize his value when he has an opportunity to do so. This is a business and that’s the reality of what we do.”

As Buono looks to secure more of his potential free agents in advance of the February 16th deadline, he’s also had some time to relax and look back the success of 2011.

“It hit me a little bit when some national papers declared us their team of the year,” he beams. “I think it said a lot about our entire organization, not just how things unfolded on the field. People forget that we played in two different stadiums, hosted a playoff game as well as a Grey Cup. That put a tremendous strain on our staff and I think they deserve as much recognition as our players. It was a championship season in every sense of the word.”

Stepping aside in December and naming Mike Benevides as head coach, Buono now feels a load has been lifted to some degree.

“Mike is ready for the challenge ahead and I think he has demonstrated that very early on,” says the CFL all-time leader in coaching wins. “Watching him put together his staff, address the media and deal with everything coming with his new responsibility has really reinforced my belief that he is going to be very successful. He has also taken a load off my plate and I’m feeling a renewed sense of focus.”

For Buono, that focus is set squarely on assembling a 2012 roster that will pick up where the 2011 team left off and continue to improve on both sides of the ball.

“Obviously winning the Grey Cup is the goal each and every season for every club, so in all honesty what we accomplished last year was put to bed by the middle of the next week for me. I'm sure that none of the other seven teams are scheming ways to beat us specifically, they are doing what they have to do in order to improve as a whole and compete. The landscape has changed in both divisions and what’s relative in one season is no longer relative in the next so we are starting from square one again. ”