Photo: Sailor 1st Class Brendan Gibson, Canadian Forces photo
Chris Shapka wasn’t in Winnipeg on Thursday night when a CC-130H Hercules transport plane flew over Princess Auto Stadium. He still felt like his two worlds were brushing up against one another though.
Shapka, who is in his 11th year as a CFL official, is also the newly named commander of 19 Wing Comox. A colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Shapka officially took on his new military role on July 23. The plane that flew over Princess Auto Stadium flew out of 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, which falls under Shapka’s command in 19 Wing. He also oversees three flying squadrons out of Comox.
The flyover was a part of the Blue Bombers’ Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation night.
“I wish I was on that game, that would be incredible,” Shapka said this week from Comox. “To be on the field and to look up and be like, ‘Hey, I’m a part of that team that’s flying over and I’m a part of this team down on the field.'”
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Chris Shapka crosses the country on a weekly basis working as a CFL official (CFL.ca)
Shapka’s first week in his new role was a hectic one. He took part in a change of command ceremony last Tuesday, was in-office on Wednesday and caught a red-eye flight to Ottawa that night, since he was working the REDBLACKS-Stampeders game on Friday. While in Ottawa, Shapka took military meetings that Thursday, before taking Friday off to work the game.
The most common question he gets is about how he juggles these two demanding roles.
“The first thing and the most important thing is I have a very understanding family,” Shapka said. “My wife and my two daughters, they know how important the Royal Canadian Air Force is to me and they know how important the Canadian Football League is to me. They’re huge supporters of it and I think that honestly, for any member of the Canadian Forces, or for any official in the CFL, if you don’t have the support of your family it’s very, very difficult to succeed.”
He said that when people on either side of his life — colleagues in the RCAF or his fellow officials in the CFL — learn about the other thing that he does, their eyes light up.
“I actually think that being being passionate about both, that’s what gives me balance, if that makes any sense,” he said.
“As a leader in the Canadian Forces, it’s important that I demonstrate to those around me a balanced lifestyle. It’s important that I demonstrate that I have more in my life than just work. Fitness is important. Family is important. Having some kind of passion outside of the office is important.
“What I try to do to a certain extent is model that. The fact that I’ve been supported by the Royal Canadian Air Force to take to take my leave and to go somewhere in the country most weekends and officiate a football game, I think it sends a pretty positive message to other people.”
Shapka, seen here at his change of command ceremony on July 23 in Comox, worked the REDBLACKS-Stampeders three days later in Ottawa (Photo: Master Corporal Parker Salustro, Canadian Forces photo)
Shapka joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1997 after graduating from Lindsay Thurber High School in Red Deer, Alta. He grew up wanting to be a pilot and the military came onto his radar as he worked his way through high school. Football, he says, came into the picture much, much earlier.
“I’m told that football came into my life before I could even walk or I could even talk. I’m told that I would watch CFL football games on my dad’s knee,” Shapka said.
“I grew up in a in a family of passionate CFL supporters. My dad, my granddad, my uncles. When I was when I was four years old, I remember getting a real Canadian Football League football for my birthday. That was one of the ways that my dad and I connected. We threw that football back and forth so much that we wore the stitches out on that football. So it was always a part of my life.”
Shapka played flag football, then moved into bantam tackle football and played through high school. While there was no football team at the Royal Military College of Canada when he attended (he settled on playing soccer there instead), Shapka credits his high school football coach, Jay Heatherington, for instilling a desire to give back to the game. As he embarked on a military career that zigzagged him to 12 different postings, Shapka sought out officiating opportunities at every stop.
From working minor football games, then eventually junior games and at the U SPORTS level, Shapka caught the eye of CFL officials. He worked his first CFL game in 2014 at Mosaic Stadium.
“That’s one of my most memorable events in the CFL,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know if you could ask for a better venue to officiate your first game than in Mosaic Stadium. That was awesome.”
The first game worked jumps out, but a decade later he says there’s a similar feeling every time he and his officiating colleagues take the field. He remembers his first Grey Cup game in Ottawa in 2017 for a particular reason. Working as an alternate sideline official, he grabbed a shovel and helped clear the sidelines as a blizzard pounded TD Place with the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders about to kickoff.
Shapka was joined by CFL officials (left to right) Murray Clarke, Jason Maggie, Steve Dolyniuk and Don Cousens for his change of command ceremony in Comox, B.C. (Supplied, Chris Shapka)
“I never imagined that in my first ever Grey Cup I would spend it pushing a snow shovel but I was happy to do it because that’s what the crew needed me to do. That’s what my team needed me to do,” he said. “I feel like I contributed to that game because I had a role in it.”
For obvious reasons, any time a team puts on a military appreciation game, it resonates for Shapka. The feeling that the flyover brings and the feeling of his two passions crossing paths is special every time. While his two jobs differ greatly, he does find similarities in the team atmospheres that he’s constantly immersed in.
“One of the big similarities between being a member of the RCAF and being a member of the CFL, at least as an official, is that my colleagues in both environments want to see you succeed,” Shapka said.
“I’ve succeeded in the RCAF because of people who helped me succeed. My mentors, those I worked with, those who took an interest in me and in supporting me and guiding me and it’s the same in the CFL. Guys like Andrew Wakefield, Justin McInnes, Al Bradbury, Dave Foxcroft, he’s helped me so much. Don Cousens, he’s my positional coach. I could go on and on and on about my my incredible colleagues in the CFL. They just want to see me succeed.”
Shapka had five of his on-field CFL colleagues attend his change of command ceremony. While his military role is of tremendous national and global importance, Shapka does have similar feelings about both of his employers.
“Both the both the Royal Canadian Air Force and and the CFL, I see them as these historic Canadian institutions that are steeped in culture and tradition,” he said. “They’ve got a long history, they’re incredible organizations. I’m incredibly proud to be a member of both of those.”
