Pounded by cross-town rival a year and a half before they even take the field, the Ottawa Gee-Gees have stopped the bleeding and hired a coach for the 2012 campaign.
Wednesday morning Gary Etcheverry was named the Gee-Gees head coach for the upcoming season.
Etcheverry replaces J.P. Asselin, who left as head coach in mid-April to join Steve Sumarah’s staff as offensive coordinator with the Carleton Ravens, who begin play in 2013 in the OUA.
Etcheverry’s CFL resume reads like a road map of the league. He won the Grey Cup as the defensive line coach with the Toronto Argonauts in 1997. He was named Head Coach of the Argos in 2002, and most recently was the defensive coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, making two more Grey Cup appearances in 2009 and 2010.
Etcheverry has also worked with the B.C. Lions and Ottawa Renegades organizations.
The resident of Point Roberts, Washington is ready for the leap back to Bytown. 
“The city as a whole was wonderful. It has a lot of potential as a football city, and I’m glad to be coming back,” Etcheverry said.
Contacted last night via text message, Etcheverry confirmed that running a CIS program is the job he has wanted for years. That desire never diminished even when he was coaching in Saskatchewan.
He pined for the UBC head coaching job and was deeply disappointed when he was one of a half dozen candidates passed over in favour alum Shawn Olson in the winter of 2010.
Etcheverry coached special teams for one year for the Thunderbirds but left the program when he lost out in the hiring process to Ted Goveia, who is now working as a player personnel director with the Argonauts.
Making the jump from the CFL back into the university scene has the 55-year old enthused according to a U Ottawa statement.
“I’ve had a lot of fortune with my time in the CFL and have experienced success at that level. But getting to know the game in Canada, I recognized that the level of football offered at the CIS is what interests me. Getting back to the CIS has been a goal of mine for a long time.”
The Canada Football Chat site reported the story yesterday.
Etcheverry has been known to try innovation and be ahead of the curve in his defensive game plans in the past. Sometimes it’s served him well and other times not so much. CFC reported that he intends to keep the current defensive playbook intact.
What is more intriguing is the fact that Etcheverry would like to institute a double wing offence. The last time a team went exclusively double tight ends in Canadian football was during John Huard’s reign as Argos head coach in 2003. Let’s hope that this is merely an option Etcheverry is developing for the offence and not the backbone of it.
The Gee-Gees first choice was former head coach Marcel Bellefeuille (1998-2000) who was let go by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at the end of last season.
