For those who work in professional sports, the term “offseason” can have many different definitions. Players take time to heal bumps and bruises and now devote their time to around the clock training. Coaches vanish to their homes for a couple months before returning to meticulously plan training camp and the upcoming season. Player personnel bosses travel to various free agent camps and combines, in hopes of finding the next diamonds in the rough. And then there is the likes of BC Lions Video Coordinator Andrew Millin. Right now, his typical day involves reviewing and packaging endless amounts of footage from the best eligible prospects for this year’s CFL Draft.
“The majority of my offseason work is focused on the draft and preparing for the upcoming season,” says Millin. “Neil McEvoy and Geroy Simon will give me a draft list, usually based by position of guys they want to take a look at. I’ll look at about 4 games of his season. Then I make out a list of plays both good and bad. When Wally takes a look at it he will have about 50 plays to get a sense of how that guy performs.”
Thanks to video preparation, Lions brass already has a handle on players they scout
When it comes to evaluating the prospect pool of Canadian talent, you can leave no stone unturned. The Lions hold nine picks in the May 7th draft, including 3rd and 7th overall, so all of Millin’s prep work will be vital for when Buono and his staff embark on Regina for the regional and national combines in late March.
Draft prep is just one of the many important year round duties for the 27-year old Port Moody native. Millin is heading into his ninth season with the club. It all started when he received an email from former video coordinator Justin Coderre looking for a video assistant while Millin was pursuing his Broadcast Television diploma from BCIT. The former high school rugby player originally planned on becoming a cameraman in the sports broadcasting field.
“I interviewed along with 3 or 4 of my other classmates and got the job,” recalls Millin. “From there it was straight to 2009 Training Camp in Abbotsford. I was still able to attend graduation because the team went to Calgary for a pre-season game that same day.”
In today’s world, every player gets a personal iPad to break down film at their own leisure.
No, road travel is one of the few things that don’t come with Millin’s job description. That was something that made for a lot of later nights and earlier mornings in his first couple of seasons, when the digital video age had yet to really take off.
“When I first started we were still filming on mini-DV tapes,” says Millin with a loud laugh. “After games I had to make duplicates of all the offensive, defensive and special teams plays on three different tapes. Then I had to drive them out to the airport at 4 in the morning, wait for Air Canada Cargo to open at 5 and ship them out on the first flight to the teams in other cities. I also had to drop copies off at the hotel of the team we just played before their flight home. Late games would end around 10:00 and I wouldn’t be ‘finished for the night’ until about 6:00 AM.”
Fast-forward, no pun intended, a few years and video sharing has changed drastically. From there, Millin only had to make the early morning, or late night, airport trek with footage loaded onto hard drives. Now those early mornings have mercifully come to a close.
“Now we can share it all digitally. The film for every team is available on the transfer service we use. We can also connect to the NFL and most colleges,” adds Millin.
Training camp is the start of a whole new daily routine for Millin and his staff.
He earned a Grey Cup ring in 2011 and became the head video coordinator in time for the 2016 season. Once training camp begins Millin’s department becomes a staff of three, along with an assistant and intern. The in season duties are a lot more fun and the days definitely more fast.
“A typical in season work day starts with helping coaches get ready for their morning meetings. I make sure that every one of them has all the footage they need for those meetings,” explains Millin. “That’s the first thing I do every morning. Then sometimes a coach will want me to track down footage for a specific project. From there, it’s on to the practice field.”
Millin breaks down many U Sports games this time of year. It’s all about prepping for the draft and combine.
Millin and his two right hand men each take a different position on the practice field. One will be in the end zone; the other around midfield and usually Millin himself is the one on the ground, walking to various positions on the field. Another product of today’s world is how fast it takes for the finished product to come to life.
“Once practice is shot, I will intercut all of the sideline, end zone and potential ground footage. From there play data gets added and sent off to the players so they can download it onto their iPads and take home.”
A couple of decades ago the thought of players having edited practice footage on their own personal devices to take home every day would have been considered crazy. Now it’s just another fascinating part of the evolving world we live in. NHL coaching legend Roger Neilson was nicknamed “Captain Video” for his then-unorthodox method of using film to study opponents. It has long since become a way of life for players and coaches all over the world.
And now Millin’s pre-draft handy work could pay massive dividends down the road.
Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com