KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A fourth crack at the NFL ended the same way as the first three for Swayze Waters — by getting cut.
Despite that disappointment last summer, the veteran kicker and punter left the Carolina Panthers with even more appreciation for his craft after getting to work alongside legendary special teams guru Bruce DeHaven.
"He's one of the best special teams coaches ever," said Waters. "I learned a lot from him."
DeHaven, who coached special teams in the NFL for 29 years, died in December at age 68 following a battle with prostate cancer, but not before leaving a mark on Waters.
"He really spent a lot of time with me talking about being a professional and the ins and outs of the game," said Waters. "That helped me a lot. Being in that environment, that locker-room, the pressure, everything that comes along with it ... it was good."
The B.C. Lions are hoping to benefit from some of those lessons after signing the CFL's top special teams player from 2014 this off-season to handle all three elements of a kicking game that was anything but settled the last two years.
Richie Leone was lights out as the team's punter with a league-best average of nearly 50 yards per boot in both 2015 and 2016, numbers that earned him a contract south of the border with the Arizona Cardinals.
But while he hit a club-record 56-yard field goal two years ago, Leone struggled mightily at times learning on the job, going 30-of-39 in his rookie season before regressing in 2016 to 35-of-51 for a success rate of just 68.6 per cent.
And he wasn't much better on 32-yard converts, missing a combined 16 of his 68 attempts.
Leone's problems were so troubling that B.C. brought Paul McCallum, who was 46 at the time, out of retirement last fall to handle place-kicking duties in the Lions' regular-season finale and two playoff games.
Waters, who has been bothered by a quad injury most of training camp, will be tasked with doing all three jobs with the Lions when healthy, which would both free up a roster spot and hopefully avoid the headaches of last season.
"That's just something that I've always been asked to do," Waters said after a recent training camp practice. "It's part of why I'm up here. Fortunately I've had some success in the past and that kind of propels me into this year and having some confidence going into it.
"It's about doing your job. That's what I take pride in."
Waters played with the Toronto Argonauts from 2012 to 2015 after originally catching on with the Edmonton Eskimos. He won the Grey Cup with Toronto in his first CFL season, and averaged 47.7 yards per punt while connecting on 47 of 52 field goals during that banner 2014 campaign.
The native of Jackson, Miss., who had NFL stops with Detroit, Pittsburgh and Oakland from 2009 to 2011, then missed a big chunk of the 2015 season with a hip injury before signing with the Panthers.
"Swayze's a veteran. He has experience," said Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono. "Everything has to be so precise in today's game. Punts have to be off in two seconds. Extra points, field goals are off in 1.3 (seconds).
"When there's inconsistency in the mechanics it makes it difficult."
The Lions also have a rookie kicker at camp in Ty Ross, who like Waters is a University of Alabama-Birmingham product and looks likely to get into a second pre-season game Friday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Waters said he had CFL offers last season when he was let go by the Panthers after a particularly poor August exhibition outing, but none made sense from a family perspective with his wife, Kendal, expecting their first child.
"I wanted to be at home during that special time," said Waters, who became a father when Taitum was born in December. "I'd also just been punting while I was in Carolina."
The 30-year-old has more than a passing knowledge of the West Coast — he won his 2014 special teams award in Vancouver during Grey Cup week and was in the area for a church conference in March, something he committed to before even signing with the Lions in February.
"It was a great time," said Waters. "It was really neat coming on that trip and knowing it would be where I'd be playing."
Playing and, if all goes according to plan, calming what has been a turbulent kicking game the last few years.
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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
