CALAYCAY PLAYS DOWN COACH OF YEAR NOMINATION
The Vienna Vikings are back in the European League of Football Championship Game for a second straight season, and the third time overall following their debut title in 2022, but, ahead of league’s annual awards ceremony, head coach Chris Calaycay in deflecting claims that he is a shoo-in for ‘best in show’.
The Hawai’i-born leader insists that he only has eyes for one thing in Stuttgart this weekend, as his Vikings take on the hometown Surge at MHP Arena on Sunday afternoon, and will only reflect on personal achievements once the dust has settled.
“It would mean absolutely nothing,” Calaycay told the Vikings’ weekly press call shortly before the end of the regular season from which the team emerged as #1 seed. “I know we talk about individual awards [all the time], and the team’s always pushing our guys for individual awards, but, in the big picture, there’s only one reward at the end of the day and that’s the championship.”
Momentarily, it dawned on Calaycay that he may be doing himself and others a disservice, and there was a hasty revisiting of his initial claim.
“Okay, to say it means nothing, that’s not true — what it means is that my coaching staff is doing an amazing job,” he smiled, perhaps embarrassed at not recognising that it is a job of many roles. “You know, we have 13 coaches on this coaching staff that sacrifice a lot, put a lot of heart and energy into it. And they’re very smart, intelligent guys, and there’s no way [we’d be in this position without them]. That’s just a representation of them — and it’s an honour to go get these coaches, too. They are big time coaches, and coach an amazing job. So, you know, obviously it is an honour [to be nominated], but that represents the group of guys and girls that we have working here.”
Having been with the Vikings throughout their ELF history, and way before they joined the continental competition — Calaycay and Stuttgart head coach Jordan Neuman were on the same side as Vienna dominated the Austrian League of the Aughts — the head man was asked whether he sees the chance to win a second European title as a fitting way to maybe consider bowing out.
“Absolutely not!” he insisted. “I knew, when my wife and I talked about it 20 years or so ago, about coming back to to Europe, it was never about the money. It was about the lifestyle that we can live, the environment that we can raise our kids in. I’ve still got them here at home, so I’ve got plenty of time to get them through. I’m extremely happy with where I’m at right now — I got to be a fan for the first time in a long time [now that my son is playing college football], screaming at the TV at two in the morning because he got his first career sack as a corner. I was just awesome.
“As to my future plans, you know, I’m here. I’ve always been here and I’d like to be the cornerstone of this thing. I always came over to Europe saying, ‘I want to grow football in Europe’, and just to be part of that is a tremendous honour. I love my work environment. I love working with all my coaches, so it’s been really good. Maybe, if somebody throws 100 million at me, I’d have to think about it, but it’s a cool situation here that I can’t really describe — and I know I don’t have any goals outside of it.”