Argos ink Clemons, promote Rita

The Toronto Argonauts' new ownership, unlike Bob Young in Hamilton, has decided to retain its head coach.

The Canadian Football League team on Monday announced that Mike (Pinball) Clemons will patrol the sidelines next season. As well, Clemons' former assistant Adam Rita has been promoted to vice-president of football operations.

Last Thursday, the Tiger-Cats fired head coach Ron Lancaster after six seasons. Young, who was named team owner on Oct. 7, had released Lancaster's son Ron Jr., earlier in the week.

Clemons guided Toronto (9-9-0) to a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference this past season.

When they were introduced to the Toronto media on Nov. 5, Argos owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon both mentioned Clemons figured prominently in the team's future.

Clemons returned as the Argos' head coach for the final six games of the 2002 season and continued in that capacity last season. Under Clemons, Toronto has reached the CFL playoffs both years, eventually losing to the Montreal Alouettes in the East Division final.

After dispatching the B.C. Lions 28-7 in the conference semi-final this past season, the Argos lost a controversial 30-26 decision to Montreal in the divisional final, with Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo appearing to fumble prior to scoring the winning touchdown.

Clemons did an admirable job balancing a difficult year off the field for the Argos.

On July 29, the CFL revoked the franchise from previous owner Sherwood Schwarz, who stopped paying his bills after losing a reported $17.4 million in three-and-a-half years.

Meanwhile, Rita had been mentioned the last few weeks as the leading candidate for the Argos' GM post. The former Argos' offensive co-ordinator has previous experience in the CFL front office, having served as general manager with the B.C. Lions when the club won the 2000 Grey Cup title.

In 2002, Rita nearly became the Argos director of football operations when Clemons was the club's president. Clemons wanted to hire Rita that year but the Lions wouldn't let the latter out of his contract.

Rita was ultimately let go following the 2002 season and rejoined the Argos as an assistant coach in Clemons' staff.

with files from Canadian Press