Calgary Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel is pleased to announce the hiring of Tony Missick as defensive backs coach, a move which completes the club’s coaching staff for the 2011 Canadian Football League season.

“Tony was a guest coach with us during training camp last year and was a great help to our staff,” said Hufnagel. “I really liked his communication skills and football knowledge and I’m confident he will do a great job in this position.”

Missick spent nine seasons coaching in the Arena Football League — as a head coach in Cincinnati and Norfolk and as a defensive coordinator with Richmond, Norfolk, Columbus, Cape Fear, Everett and Austin. Missick was most recently the assistant head coach and linebackers coach at Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville, Va.

“I’m looking forward to working with a first-class organization like the Calgary Stampeders,” said Missick. “I was up here last year as a guest coach and from what I experienced, this is an extremely tight-knit staff and I can’t wait to begin contributing to the group and learning from two of the best in John Hufnagel and defensive coordinator Chris Jones.”

Prior to coaching, Missick played collegiate football at the University of Kentucky. He then played one season with the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles and five seasons in the Arena Football League.

The rest of Calgary’s coaching staff includes Chris Jones (defensive coordinator and assistant director of player personnel/football operations), Dave Dickenson (offensive coordinator), Mark Kilam (special teams coordinator), Cornell Brown (defensive line), Kris Sweet (offensive line), Pete Costanza (receivers), Mike Gibson (running backs) and Brent Monson (linebackers/strength and conditioning).
 
“I’m excited we were able to retain most of our staff from last season,” said Hufnagel. “We continue to have an excellent combination of youth and experience and everyone is determined to make this organization as successful as possible.”

Here’s more on the 2011 coaching staff:

• Jones enters his fourth season as the Stampeders’ defensive coordinator and his second season with the additional role of assistant director of football operations. The Stamps defence was the stingiest among West Division teams in 2010 and ranked third overall. The unit gave up the fewest yards of offence in the league (6,049), as well as the fewest touchdowns (36) while tying for the league in takeaways (54) and leading all CFL clubs with seven defensive touchdowns scored.
• In his third season on Calgary’s staff, Dickenson — one of the most decorated passers in Stampeders and CFL history — becomes the offensive coordinator. In his first season as a coach, Dickenson tutored the Stampeders running backs and helped Joffrey Reynolds claim the CFL rushing crown. In 2010, he was quarterbacks coach while also calling offensive plays on game days and being heavily involved in game planning. During the 2010 campaign, the Stamps’ offence led the CFL in points scored (626), yards of offence (7,769), most first downs (445) and most rushing yards (2,618) while Stamps quarterback Henry Burris was voted the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player.
• Sweet, who is entering his fifth season with the Stamps, works with an offensive line that has paved the way for a pair of CFL rushing titles for Joffrey Reynolds. Left tackle Ben Archibald was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in 2010 and Archibald and Dimitri Tsoumpas were both CFL all-stars.
• Fourth-year receivers coach Costanza oversaw a group that produced three 1,000-yard pass-catchers in 2010 — Nik Lewis, Romby Bryant and Ken-Yon Rambo. It was the first time since 2000 the Stamps have had a trio of 1,000-yard receivers. Lewis and Bryant were both West Division all-stars this past season while Lewis was also a CFL all-star.
• Gibson is entering into his first season with the Stampeders. Prior to joining the Stampeders, he spent two seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as offensive co-ordinator. In his second year with Hamilton, he also held the title of running backs coach. The Tiger-Cats offence made steady progress under Gibson and in 2010, Kevin Glenn set a franchise record for touchdown passes and became only the second Hamilton pivot to throw for more than 5,000 yards in a season.
• Brown, heading into his fourth season with the Red and White, operates a defensive line that produced three division all-stars in 2010 — DeVone Claybrooks, Charleston Hughes and Tom Johnson. The line was a key part of a defensive unit that has been the stingiest in the West Division for three consecutive seasons.
• In his first year as special-teams coordinator, Kilam worked with rookie kicker Rob Maver, who won the CFL scoring title, and punter Burke Dales, who led the league in punting average and was a CFL all-star.
• In addition to supervising the Stamps’ strength and conditioning requirements, Monson handled the talented and accomplished linebacking corps. In his first season at middle linebacker, Juwan Simpson shared the team lead with seven sacks, earned CFL all-star recognition and was a finalist for the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player award.