Regional showdowns to highlight OFSAA bowls

Who they’re going to play is surely going to be a big deal for teams that qualify for the nine OFSAA bowls that will be played at Tim Hortons Field next month.

This year the games — featuring the top high school football teams from across the province from Nov. 27-29 — will be regional showdowns, meaning they’ll offer the chance to play traditional rivals or at least schools they know pretty well in their biggest game of the year.

The best Catholic school will face the best public school from Toronto in the Metro Bowl, for example. And, depending how the play-ins go, the best from the Hamilton public board could wind up facing the top team from the Hamilton Catholic board in a televised prime-time game.

“This is one of those opportunities where you really get to show what you’re made of,” says Burlington Nelson offensive lineman, Connor Graham.

But as big a deal as who they play is the fact that they get to play in a spotlight like this at all. Coaches from every Ontario university team and most teams from across the country will be there scouting. That opportunity for that level of visibility and exposure to decision-makers from the next level of football exists nowhere else in the province.

When this thing started a few years ago, committee chair Dan Dominico says he wasn’t sure teams a long way from Hamilton would come to play a single game. Especially northern teams. It’s a grind and it costs money.

Yet, they couldn’t have been more eager. He says some travel almost 24 hours by bus for the chance to play under this spotlight.

“This is their chance to be seen by somebody,” he says.

McMaster offensive co-ordinator Kyle Quinlan says it’s especially big for those players who live and go to school far afield.

Canadian university teams have neither the budget nor the scouting staffs to be at every high school game in every city across the province.

While players at schools in this region will be watched and assessed live at many of their games,

most players outside the large population centres can only be viewed on tape.

The problem is, film doesn’t tell the whole story.

Particularly since it’s hard to know how good the competition is they’re facing.

That makes recruiting decisions difficult for coaches.

But bring them here and put them against a strong side and opinions can be verified while previously unknown diamonds can occasionally be discovered.

Even the local players who everyone in the university football community knows well can enhance their opportunities with a big performance in one of these games.

“You can’t get a bigger stage than the OFSAA bowls,” Quinlan says.