MARC  TRESTMAN IS THE 2009 CFL COACH OF THE YEAR
Montreal Alouettes’ head coach has “come to represent excellence” in our league:  Commissioner Cohon

EDMONTON -- Montreal Alouettes Head Coach Marc Trestman is the Canadian Football League’s Coach of the year for 2009, Commissioner Mark Cohon announced here today.

“This award recognizes Coach Trestman’s tremendous regular season and playoff success, and his team’s Grey Cup victory, last year,” Cohon said.

“But it also caps a remarkable two-year run for him, one that has seen his name come to represent excellence in our league.”

Trestman will be in his third season as Head Coach of the Montreal Alouettes in 2010 after leading the team to a franchise-best 15-3-0 record in 2009, guiding the Als to the Grey Cup championship.

Under Trestman, the Alouettes have achieved the CFL’s best record over the last two seasons with an overall mark of 26-10-0, two East Division Championships, two Grey Cup appearances, and now a Grey Cup victory, a thrilling 28-27 win over  Saskatchewan last November.

Trestman, voted CFL Coach of the Year by the Football Reporters of Canada, was joined at today’s ceremony by  Saskatchewan Roughrider Head Coach Ken Miller and Hamilton Tiger-Cat Head Coach Marcel Bellefeuille, who were also nominated for the award.

Miller is entering his third season as head coach in Saskatchewan after leading his team to first place in the CFL’s West Dvisision with a 10-7-1 record in 2009, and berth in last year’s Grey Cup.

Bellefeuille also returns for 2010, after leading the resurgent Hamilton Tiger-Cats to a 9-9 record, good for second place in the CFL East Division, and the team’s first playoff berth since 2004.

At the Coach of the Year luncheon that capped three days of CFL Congress meetings here, Cohon described all three coaches as “consummate gentlemen” who treat players, fans and the media with honesty, sincerity and respect.

“They greet opportunity with hard work, adversity with calm, defeat with resolve, and victory with humility,” Cohon said.

“And I think what really defines these men, as leaders, is how they inspire their players to be leaders.”

Trestman’s first serious contact with Canadian football came in 2007 with Alouettes General Manger and then-Head Coach Jim Popp invited him to serve as a guest coach at the team’s training camp.

When he arrived in Montreal as Head Coach in 2008, Trestman brought with him from the United States an impressive resume of NCAA and National Football League coaching successes, including stints tutoring some of the greatest quarterbacks and most productive offenses in the history of American football.

But while Popp and Alouettes owner Bob Wetenhall clearly recognized how much Trestman had to offer the CFL, Trestman stressed to fans and the media that he had a lot to learn about the CFL.

“To say that Coach Trestman has been a fast learner would be one of the great understatements in the history of our league, because his start in the CFL is without question one of the greatest in history of our league,” Cohon said.

“I want to congratulate him, the rest of his coaching staff and the entire Montreal Alouettes organization on this important honour.”