Michael Booth, The Now Newspaper
March 11, 2004

Ravens coach keeps up family tradition

One of the secrets of coaching is doing your homework.

If that's the case, Jordan Easley has a leg up on most other minor football bench bosses. Not only does Easley do homework to prepare for games, he does it every night.

Easley played in the North Surrey system for five years before hanging up the pads at 13. He still wanted to stay involved so his mother arranged for him to help coach his younger brother's flag team. After two years as an assistant, Easley took over the team as head coach this season.

"Coaching has been really fun for me - especially at the flag level with the five, six and seven year olds," he said. "The kids are just so small and they don't give you any attitude. They just want to listen to everything you say and they don't talk back to you."

Easley has been helped by the fact coaching is kind of a family tradition. Jordan's father Tom and uncle Frank help coach the North Surrey Eagles junior bantam team and another uncle, Dave Easley, is the defensive coordinator for the CFL's Ottawa Renegades.

Tom Easley said even with all of this coaching knowledge available to him, his son has worked hard to learn the ropes at his own pace.

"He's got lots of people who help him out all of the time," he said. "To be honest, he's been figuring most things out by himself. He's been getting some help from guys in the clubhouse but it's minor stuff. Basically at his level, it's just teaching the basic fundamentals and letting them go out and have some fun."

Tom Easley added some family traits are readily apparent when he watches his son coach a game.

"He's very similar to my older brother and me in the way he approaches games," Tom said with a laugh. "He's a pacer. He gets all wound up and gets really involved. He's really intense."

Jordan Easley credits his father and uncles for helping him through some rough stretches when he was learning as an assistant but this year he has been pretty much able to make own way.

The Ravens have a pair of assistant coaches - Wade Mindel and Adrian Pringle - who help teach the kids basic skills but the final decisions are Easley's.

Taking orders from a 15-year-old kid may have presented problems for some adults but Easley insists everything has gone smoothly for the Ravens coaches this year.

"They're older than me, they're parents of players on the team," Easley said of his assistants. "We've had no problem working together. At the beginning of the year some parents thought that maybe a 15-year-old kid wasn't quite ready to be a head coach.

"I guess I've kind of proved myself that I know my stuff and I know what I'm doing. At that level of football it's so simple, it's basic stuff. Now the parents show me respect and that's all I can ask for."

The Ravens have been modestly successful this season. The team is currently in a battle for third place overall and harbours hopes of advancing through the playoffs to the championship game at B.C. Place stadium.

For Easley, his current run as a head coach is likely to be a short one. His goal for next season is to move up to atom football with many of the Ravens players.

"I love coaching right now and I want to keep going with it," he said. "I just got my Level 1 this year and I want to move up with the levels like my dad. I want to move up to tackle where I can bring in better offensive and defensive stuff.

"Right now I've had my fill of being a head coach. If I move up to tackle I want to do it as an assistant coach."