[transplant99]

In most any job these days, a 15-year stay is something to be applauded.

When that job is inside the highly transitory world of professional sports? Well, it’s practically reason for a confetti shower and accompanying brass band.

“The very first day?” Stampeders’ special teams co-ordinator Mark Kilam allows his mind to drift back to 2005, to his younger, inexperienced self. “Oh, yeah. Of course. I was really nervous. I was 25.

“The building” – he motions to the home north end/dressing-room section of McMahon Stadium – “was different back then. I didn’t have an office. So I set up my stuff in the gym that was in there at the time.

“And anybody that walked by, I tried to talk to them.

“New guy, right?

“Just wanted to introduce myself.”

Fifteen years later, introductions are hardly necessary.

https://www.stampeders.com/2019/05/2...ears-counting/