Mount Allison’s new head football coach is no stranger to Sackville. Scott Brady actually played for the Mounties from 2006 to 2009, and then joined the football coaching staff in 2010. During his tenure, Brady helped the football Mounties win back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014, and achieve the first undefeated regular season in Mounties history in 2014. In 2016 Brady became head coach, and in 2017, left the team to join the coaching staff at McMaster University in Hamilton. Seven years later, he is back and taking over as head coach of the football Mounties.
Brady stopped by CHMA this week to talk about his decision to return to Mount Allison, and his plans for the football club:
Brady says his young family was one of the main reasons he wanted to return to Sackville, but also that he has fond memories of his time in Sackville as a student and coach. “There really is something special here,” says Brady. “The strength of Mount Allison is really our people… There’s just incredible people here.”
Both Sackville and Hamilton are “pretty football-crazy towns” says Brady. “I’ve been really fortunate to be in two places that are really invested in football,” he says, recalling the 2013 Uteck Bowl, when Mount Allison hosted a Laval at MacAulay Field.
“You know our 2400-person campus, we’ve got 3600 people packed around MacAulay Field at the time cheering us on. We’ve got a pep rally in the quad the night before the game, with the entire school out. When we’re good, when it’s being done the right way,” says Brady, “this town, this campus, this community, will support it like no other in the country.”
Brady says that he’s been busy meeting with players and coaching staff, and others with an interest in the program. “It’s been a lot of time on the phone with alumni, with former players, people who are invested in our program, and just kind of sharing the vision for what we’re trying to build here,” says Brady. “And how we’re going to get the program back where we all want it to be.”
And that vision is “to be the hardest working, most connected team in the country,” says Brady. “I think that’s what Mount Allison is. And any time in our history when we have been successful, it’s really been on those two things.”
Brady says the next six weeks will involve “laying the foundation for what next year’s recruiting process is going to be. Our biggest priority is dominating Atlantic Canada in recruiting,” says Brady. “We have to get the best football players in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to come to Mount Allison. So it’s going to be spending a lot of time trying to get to know them and investing in them, them and their families, and just kind of sharing what makes this place special with them, and getting as far down that road as we possibly can ahead of next year’s recruiting.”
