Dave Canales connecting with staff, even in hot yoga class

Since then, Canales has been to class with Cooley four straight weeks, an example of the intentional way he has gone about building relationships since coming here, and meeting a defensive staff he didn’t really know. And that’s just one example, as he’s taken a number of steps to find out about people in his own hyper-positive, hyper-present style.

“It’s been cool to develop that relationship, and that’s my example,” Cooley said. “I know a lot of other people have personal examples; we had the Kenny Chesney concert, and he’ll have people over to his house; he just got moved in. So that’s been the one thing getting used to because the football hasn’t really changed for us on our side of the ball. But creating that connection and that closeness, somebody that you can believe in from that standpoint will allow you to go an extra mile when you don’t necessarily feel like it.”

Cooley laughed and said his instructors aren’t afraid to call out people for sub-par efforts, and Canales was no exception, even if they didn’t know who he was at first.

“They were like, this is your buddy, Dave, that’s his name, right?” Cooley said. “And then I get a text like, oh, I didn’t realize that was the head coach, and I was like, yeah. So he’s known in there. . . .

“If you wake up at 5:45 and do an exercise, you’re kind of really about it. And most people on the mat are kind of like in their own little zone. So it’s not much of a distraction.”

He joked that if anyone was thinking about joining them in the advanced class (they use weights, too), “there’s a waitlist.”