The Captains of Gryphon Football’s Past

There is a picture hanging on a wall in Chris Camboia’s Woodstock home that brings the memories of his Gryphon Football career flooding back. It’s of a group of players after a practice some time in November. The early-evening sky was already dark and the cold temperatures are apparent because of the steam rising off the heads of Camboia and his teammates.

It reminds him to never forget “the days of mud and blood.”

Camboia was a fixture on the Gryphon teams of the mid 1990s, a fearsome defensive lineman who left it all on the field every game he played. He was never too shy to voice his opinion, which is one of the many reasons he ultimately became a respected captain. At a Yates Cup press conference in 1996, he was asked about Guelph being the Cinderella team going up against a Waterloo powerhouse. Camboia knew he would get a kick under the table from Coach Dan McNally sitting beside him, but he couldn’t resist setting the reporter straight.

“There’s nothing Cinderella about getting up at six in the morning everyday, about working hard,” he said at the time.

 It was all about the brotherhood and the work for Camboia and his teammates. They would beat the Warriors on the road and hoist the Yates Cup. And the following year, he became a captain.

“I was not someone who was into trophies or awards,” says Camboia, who now owns a successful real estate business, in addition to founding the Woodstock Wolverines football program. “But being voted captain meant that your peers wanted you to lead them and that was as high an honour as I could receive.

“What fuelled us was that bond we have. I don’t say ‘had,’ I say have. When you’re in the brotherhood, you’re in for life. That’s the biggest thing I took away from my experience at Guelph.

“You represent not just yourself but the whole family.”

Pat Tracey was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator of that Yates Cup winner in 1996. But 10 years prior, he was also a Gryphon Football captain. Tracey says the teams of that era were typically self-driven and highly motivated. He was inspired by the leadership from seniors in the previous year like Jeff Hale and Sam Benicasa. Tracey was a defensive backfield unit captain beginning in 1984 and often picked to lead calisthenics and drills in camp. He had impressed the staff with his effort in winter workouts and summer runs and before the first exhibition game of the 1986 season, Tracey got the news that he would be a captain.

“It was at the time, and continues to this day to be, a tremendous honour to represent not only my unit but the entire defense,” says Tracey, the current defensive coordinator of the UBC Thunderbirds. “It is a title that carried added weight but I would not trade the experience it gifted me. Not all players get the opportunity to have a key role in the chemistry of the team. The coaches designed the plays and the practice plans but the players own the locker room and build the character of the team from within those walls.”

Being a Gryphon Football captain has always meant responsibility. And the styles of those who have held the honour varied. Camboia did it with action and emotion, like when he famously threw a Gatorade jug at halftime of a tense meeting with Western, wrecking both a table and turning all of the team’s towels orange. Tracey was more of a democratic leader during the week and authoritarian on game days. He wanted to be the one to face the opponent at the coin toss and deliver a special game-day message to the quarterback or star receiver courtesy of the Guelph defence.

Another job was relaying assistant coach Dick Brown’s defensive plays in the huddle.

“During a game versus Windsor, I sustained a concussion early in the second quarter,” Tracey recalls. “I called the same defense for the next couple of series regardless of the signal or the situation. Coach Brown thought he was messing up the signals.”

Michael Millar had his own style as a Gryphon captain – take your lunch box and go to work. The Port Colborne native and renowned defensive lineman, who was a captain for multiple years beginning in 2009, carried that mentality with him throughout his time at Guelph. In Millar’s fifth and final year, the lunch box motto was officially adopted by the entire defence.

“The meaning behind it was that it did not matter if anyone received personal accolades – we were there to do a job and we were going to accomplish that goal together,” he says. “I would stress for my teammates to control what they could control. If everyone does their job on every single snap, we would set ourselves up for a win.”

Millar considers his captaincy an incredible honour to this day. He shared the leadership opportunity with friend and teammate Chris Rossetti, following in the footsteps of the Gryphons who influenced him, like Adam Dunk, Matt Rossetti, and Scott Eggleton. Millar soaked up everything they had to say in his first couple years and they helped provide the foundation for him serving as captain.

“I remember a discussion I had with Adam,” he says. “He had just finished his final season and this hit me pretty hard. Adam was Guelph’s identity while I played there. Everyone could look to him in times of adversity and he would lead us through. He was fearless on the field and a great person off it. Adam had decided to pass down our pre-game chant, ‘The Law of the Jungle,’ to me. For my fourth and fifth years, it would be the last words of motivation that my brothers would receive before hitting the field.

“I still remember looking around the room before my last game. It’s a feeling that I will never forget.”

Camboia, Tracey, and Millar were central figures in their Gryphon tenures. But the leadership lessons they learned in their roles didn’t end when the helmets came off for the final time. It was those moments as captains that gave them a base they would use throughout their lives after their University of Guelph careers.

Camboia learned what true work was from his immigrant father Jose and that nothing should be expected. Developing a mindset to grind and do your best came naturally to him and now he passes that mentality on to his own sons Miguel and Diego. Camboia is an active participant in coaching clinics and has visited with some of the best in the business like Urban Meyer of Ohio State and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“You’re still a representative of that brotherhood,” he says. “In a work capacity or at home or in the community, you have an opportunity to impact people by the way you think, the way you carry yourself, by being that leader and a difference maker.”

Millar is grateful for all of the relationships that Gryphon Football gave him. He lives in St. Catharines with his partner Adriana and has spent the past seven years as an employee benefit consultant at Benefit Partners, a division of People Corporation. The experiences he shared for five years at Guelph, especially those as a captain, helped make him who he is.

“I learned so much from my teammates and fellow captains,” Millar says. “I made lifelong friends in the locker room and on the field and it is a bond that we will share for a lifetime. I looked up to a lot of my teammates even though I was in a leadership role. There were guys like Zack Androschuk, a fifth-year captain, who at the time was applying to med school. I remember the effort that Zack put into every aspect of his life and I try to emulate that drive that he has. I think about Jake Reinhart and the amount of work that he put into his craft. Nobody worked harder than Jake in the weight room.

“Gryphon Football surrounded me with different personalities and so many incredible people. I learned from my brothers and try to emulate their best qualities to make me a better person today.”

Tracey says that his 33-year coaching career can be traced back to his days as a Gryphon. He never even saw the defensive side of the football in high school and was actually recruited to Guelph as a tailback. Tracey says that hope came to an abrupt halt when he was steamrolled by future CFL draft pick Harry Doering in a one-on-one drill. After admitting to cut-blocking Doering the next occasion they met up, it was time to study the ins and outs of being a defensive back.

“I learned the game from Coach Brown, and even gained a nickname from him,” says Tracey. “He was my mentor on everything football, from film study to the ‘spider block.’ He also developed my leadership skills as a captain and a coordinator.

“I was lucky to have him, as well as my secondary teammates. My defensive co-captain in 1986 was my housemate and fellow senior DB Michael Knighton. Coach Brown kept a practice/game grading card. We learned so much from him and we never wanted to let him down.

“I still have my grade card and I am proud to say that in five seasons together, his two starting corners never allowed a touchdown pass. Thank you, Jeff Volpe, for being the deep free safety.”

Written By: David DiCenzo