Behind the R | Assistant Equipment Manager Wray Perkin
Chris Hofley sits down with REDBLACKS Assistant Equipment Manager Wray Perkin between a morning of meetings and an afternoon of cleat inventory to find out how he made his way from the Canada’s east coast to its capital, what a day in the life is like for him and if he’s really as famous in Sackville, New Brunswick as we’ve been hearing.
REDBLACKS: Let’s go back to before you set up shop in Ottawa. You’re born in raised in Sackville, New Brunswick and went to school back home. How did you end up working for the REDBLACKS?
Wray Perkin: I worked in football for many years at Mount Allison University and eventually I volunteered at a couple training camps with the Montreal Alouettes where Mr. RJ James (head REDBLACKS equipment manager) was the assistant equipment manager. That’s how I got my in when he got the job in Ottawa. He was familiar with me and I was familiar with him.”
REDBLACKS: Did you play football or any other sports growing up?
Perkin: I’ve never played football. I tried out for Peewee in Grade 6 and decided not to play, because I was already volunteering with the Mounties. I was having too much fun with that so I decided to stick with it. I also played baseball and basketball and I still play ultimate Frisbee.
REDBLACKS: What drew you into getting involved with a football team?
Perkin: The reason I fell in love with football was a player named Eric Lapointe. He was a running back for Mount A and I went to a game with my parents and my mom encouraged me to go up to him after the game…and I was in French immersion so she encouraged me to talk to him in French. We hit it off and developed a pretty close relationship over the next few years, with him and my other adopted big brothers on the team.
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REDBLACKS: What’s the long-term game plan for you in terms of your career?
Perkin: I just finished up my degree. I graduated from Mount A four years ago and since then I’ve been working away at an education degree and I finished that this winter with my last student-teacher placements. I did it through Acadia University and they’ve been awesome with accommodating my work situation.
REDBLACKS: What made you want to go into teaching?
Perkin: I’ve had my eye on being a teacher since I was in high school. I was fortunate to have had a lot of awesome high school teachers and they inspired me to go along that route. Teaching high school is lso the best in to coaching football – that’s my plan going forward, coach and teach at the high school level.
REDBLACKS: You have been here since the beginning, going from a last-place team to Grey Cup runners-up to champions. What has that progression been like?
Perkin: It’s been a very unique experience; I know it sounds cliché but it still seems surreal at times. Sometimes I still walk into the stadium and it’s like, man I work here, this is what I do. In three years we’ve experience a bit of everything – a down season, playoff heartbreak and then reaching the pinnacle. I don’t know many teams that have had three years like that. It’s been a pretty unreal experience and I consider myself very fortunate to be have involved since the first year and sto have seen that progression.
REDBLACKS: You got to bring the Grey Cup back home to your hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick, where I understand you’re something of a celebrity –
Perkin: I refuse to confirm that.
REDBLACKS: Okay, okay, but that must have been an incredible experience.
Perkin: That was a really special day for me. I had a quiet get together with some people I’m close with and who have meant a lot to me from a football and personal standpoint. To be able to share it with the town and the high school team as well was an amazing experience. There was a couple from Amherst (Nova Scotia) and they showed up wearing REDBLACKS shirts and they’ve been waiting 40 years for Ottawa to win the cup and to see it in person. Just seeing the reactions of people and share the trophy with them was pretty special.
REDBLACKS: In terms of your actual work here, what’s a typical day like for you?
Perkin: Every day is kind of different, which is ironic because we get into such a routine here. April and May we spend inventorying all the new stuff and doing a lot of laundry. After that it’s just about making sure that the players are are equipped properly and making sure everything fits, fixing it when it breaks, spotting balls and catching for the quarterbacks during practice. It’s a pretty wide job description.
REDBLACKS: You know the players well – how important is that relationship to being able to do your job effectively?
Perkin: It’s very important. Equipment guys are unique; we’re behind the scenes a lot and guys come to us for pretty much anything. It’s important to have good relationships and handle the different personalities you find in a locker room.
REDBLACKS: What’s the most common equipment requests you get from players?
Perkin: That one’s easy: socks or gloves. It’s always socks or gloves.
