If you ask Butch Caston, managing an ATB Financial branch is a lot like coaching a football team. “You’ve got to have people in the right places,” said Caston, manager of ATB’s Calgary West Springs branch. “Everyone has to see the connection to how everything’s going to be successful. You all have to have the same goal. Everything has to click together. It’s the same in banking.”
Caston comes by his opinion honestly. Long before beginning a successful banking career, he was a star running back for Idaho State University. “We averaged about 45 points a game and we gave up 47,” Caston laughed. “Offensively, we were awesome. We put a lot of points on the board. Defensively, we just didn’t have it.”
After his senior year with the Bengals, Caston signed as a free agent with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in 1988. He gave it everything he had in his first pro training camp but was released just before the Browns’ first pre-season game. “That was probably the toughest experience I ever had,” Caston recalled. “Most people think football is a physical game, but it’s mental. Everything has to be so precise, and if it’s not precise, it’s your fault. You have to learn hundreds of plays and read coverages on the fly. It just wears you down.”
After getting released, Caston went back to Idaho State to complete his degree and continue training for another NFL opportunity. Then one day, the phone rang. It wasn’t an NFL team, but it was an opportunity. The Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders were interested.
Caston joined the Stamps in 1989 and had the best training camp of his life. “Coach Larry Kuharich kept track of how many plays you missed, how many blocks you missed, how many passes you dropped and how many fumbles you had,” Caston said. “Through the whole training camp, I only made one mistake. I dropped one pass. That’s how I ended up making the team.”
Caston’s first regular season game was at Regina’s Taylor Field against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It turned out to be his last. Caston was on the field for the opening kickoff, and the ball came right to him. “I was running with the ball and I had this big grin on my face,” remembered Caston. “All I saw was open field. I knew it was six (a touchdown). I knew no one was going to catch me. I made a cut to my right and I tore my hamstring before anyone touched me. I hobbled about 15 or 20 yards before I actually hit the ground.”
He didn’t know it then, but that injury ended Caston’s pro football career. He tried to come back later that season, but tore his other hamstring. He tried out for the Stamps again in 1990 and was released. He gave it one more shot with the BC Lions in 1991, but the hamstring injury wouldn’t go away. “Coach Bob O’Billovich pulled me aside and said I can tell you’re hurt. I’m going to let you go home and heal it and I’ll call you back in four or five weeks,” Caston said.
But Caston told O’Billovich not to bother. He knew he was done playing the game he loved. “It sucked for years. It probably took seven years to get over that,” admitted Caston. “I would sit there and watch games and say: ‘Man, I could do that!’”
Today, Caston believes retiring from football was the smartest move he ever made. He began his career in banking as a teller and worked his way through the ranks, leaning on his football experience every step of the way. “It taught me how to be part of a team,” said Caston, still active with the Stampeder alumni. “It taught me how to be led and how to lead others. It’s not always going to work perfectly, but it’s fun when it does.”
“There’s a real strong team focus at his branch,” added Stephanie Minardi, ATB’s District General Manager for Calgary-West. “Butch is certainly a well-rounded team player. His personality and his passion for his clients and employees make him a great fit for ATB.”
“ATB is very people oriented and very customer service focused,” said Caston. “The other institutions I worked at always said they believe in the customer but it always came down to the revenue. ATB actually believes in the employee and the customer. I think if you have those two qualities, you’re going to be successful.”
