General Manager Ted Goveia is confident that the Tiger-Cats are in good hands as he begins treatment for a serious health condition.
“Unfortunately, back in April I was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer that’s spread,” Goveia said earlier this week. “And it’s obviously brought some challenges to my day-to-day life over the past couple of months. I wanted to keep my health condition in house until we had a chance to build our team and pick our final roster. Training camp is such a critical time for everyone and I am grateful that we were able to focus on fielding the best team possible for 2025 and not have my health become a distraction.
“I let the players know that I’m not going to be here (at the team facilities) every minute of the day and I’m going to be in treatment and need to focus on my health. I’m still the general manager, but I’ll not always be in the building. But in today’s day and age everything’s downloaded to my laptop and there’s always the phone. I want to stay as attached as I can. I mean, I love the game and I really like our football team so that’s not going to change. I enjoy being around our players and I will miss the daily interaction—it motivates me to kick this and get back with the team.
“I feel like we’re in good shape, but I did have to meet with everybody in the building because I thought they had the right to know. As difficult a conversation as it is to have, I owe that to the players and to the people who are working here.”
Goveia points out that once free agency and the Global and National drafts are completed the team is always then handed over from the personnel department to the coaching staff, who then use training camp to determine, with input from the GM, the final roster. Scott Milanovich and his staff did all of that last Saturday and are now working ahead toward this Saturday’s season opener in Calgary.
But there is still the usual day-to-day work for the football operations staff to execute while Goveia is undergoing treatment and during his recovery period.
“I’m not at all concerned that we’re going to be able to function well throughout this,” Goveia said. “I don’t have one worry about that. I feel like we’re in good shape, and I think we’ve got a bunch of rising stars.”
The football operations department includes President Orlondo Steinauer, GM Goveia, Director of Player Personnel Cyril Penn, Director of Scouting Alex Russell, Director of Pro Scouting Dane Vandernat, National Scout Tom Flaxman, Director of Football Operations CJ Paduano and Manager of Football Operations Nick Roberto.
After Steinauer went through an exhaustive interviewing process and hired Goveia in early December, Goveia in turn hired Penn, Russell, Vandernat and Flaxman, who are all new to the organization this year, although Russell –before taking higher positions with the Argonauts and then the Redblacks—had been coordinator of football operations for his hometown Ticats from 2016-18.
“We’re still working hard this week to get a handle on all the cuts across the league and to look for ways to solve problems should they arise, either based on performance or injuries,” Goveia said.
There is a general consensus across the league that the Ticats had a solid off-season. They addressed 2024 shortcomings by revamping the defence, with three new presumptive starters on the defensive line, fortified the secondary with free agents Reggie Stubblefield and DaShaun Amos, and also got better on offence where they were already good: bringing in Kenny Lawler to work beside Tim White; adding free agent Drew Wolitarsky to a deep Canadian receiving corps; and adding all-star guard Liam Dobson to make up for the free agency loss of centre David Beard to his hometown Edmonton.
Then they enjoyed a very promising 2025 National Draft, with their first four choices—linebacker Devin Veresuk, No. 2 overall; defensive end Isaiah Bagnah (No.9); offensive lineman Arvin Hosseini (No. 21) and defensive back Mack Bannatyne (No. 28) all making the active roster on cutdown day. Defensive tackle Ty Anderson (36th overall) made the club on the practice roster.
“During the season our job in football ops is getting a feel for the practice habits of your players, maybe seeing who lets the foot off the gas once they’ve made the team, making sure you’ve got the right people in the room,” Goveia said. “At some point there are going to be injuries, a bad game or other things that happen throughout the season. So having high character, guys who enjoy working together, to me is how you solve those problems.
“So, it’s about paying attention to that. The scoreboard is the scoreboard, obviously, but if we drop a game, I still believe in the guys we have here.”
“So, I’m not looking to make any wholesale changes,” Goveia continued, “and, at the same time, you have to be prepared to respond when you have injuries or a lack of performance in certain areas. But those hopefully are few and far between.”
A Burlington native, Goveia coached with the Burlington Braves, McMaster Marauders, Mountain Allison, and UBC before moving into the pro ranks with the Argonauts, then the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He has always maintained a home here and was impressed with how the Ticats ran their organization, top to bottom. That appreciation, he says, has increased since he moved inside the stadium and it includes all aspects of the organization. On his first day he toured, among other places, the ticket-selling and business departments, in a show of solidarity.
“It’s funny, I’ve talked about it a couple of times in team meetings,” he says. “When you’ve made a few stops and been as many places I have, you have some experiences to draw from. Hamilton has opened my eyes; how detailed everyone is and how much pride the people who work in our building take in being high-performance in their jobs.
“They’ve exceeded my expectations in every area; in terms of setting up training camp, the culture internally, in terms of being a supportive workplace.
“I come to work every day and people are in a good mood and they’re excited to be here. That rubs off on anyone who steps into our building.
“The players feel it. The coaches feel it.”
And Ted Goveia feels it.
