Eight Cambridge football teams suspended in shock over insurance
CAMBRIDGE — An audit of Cambridge Minor Football Association’s membership has led to the suspension of eight teams for the remainder of the Ontario Provincial Football League and Ontario Football League seasons.
The Ontario Football Alliance probe — prompted by a “gross violation” of safety rules earlier this month — revealed 76 players and seven coaches from eight Cambridge teams were not registered in Football Canada’s database and therefore had been operating without insurance since the start of their seasons in May.
The Alliance, the sport’s governing body in the province, gave the Cambridge association a deadline of noon Thursday to register its players and coaches.
But the OPFL and OFL stepped in, expelled the teams and vacated all their wins this season on Wednesday.
Three Cambridge teams had been scheduled to play their OPFL counterparts, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Saturday at Tim Hortons Field.
The Tiger-Cat players, parents and officiating crews were notified the triple-header was cancelled Thursday morning.
“This wasn’t a situation where it was a witch hunt on Cambridge Minor Football,” said Todd Prior, director of marketing and promotions for the Ontario Football Alliance.
“This was a situation that they put two 11-year-olds in jeopardy, that essentially started this domino effect ... we turned over a rock and this is what we found, and we turned over another rock and found something else.”
The situation led to the resignation of Cambridge Minor Football Association president Tyson Brochu on Thursday morning and the suspension of the two coaches who were involved in the initial investigation.
Rob Nadon and Steve Schroder, who coached Cambridge under-13 teams, are listed on the Ontario Football Alliance website as being eligible to return to coaching on Jan. 1, 2019.
Ontario Provincial Football League executive vice-president Dan Fournier refused comment.
Brochu also declined comment, but accepted responsibility in an email to “Lions members” that was obtained by The Record.
The initial probe, said Prior, was launched June 18 when it was brought to the Ontario Football Alliance’s attention that two 11-year-old players had competed for two different Cambridge under-13 teams on June 15 and 17, in “gross violation” of a safety rule that prevents players from competing in two games in a 72-hour window.
Cambridge officials admitted the wrongdoing, said Prior.
This led to a followup probe of two coaches and one assistant that revealed two of the three coaches weren’t registered with Football Canada.
Digging even deeper, Prior discovered 13 coaches from Cambridge’s three under-13 teams were not registered.
“This was an issue we brought forward to Cambridge Minor Football, that they had to clean it up right away and that we would be looking into their association numbers on June 25,” said Prior.
“We were essentially giving them some sort of grace to get the matter resolved.”
The full two-day audit began Monday. It revealed Cambridge had taken some steps to register coaches, but showed 76 players and seven coaches were still not in compliance.
Brochu was informed of those numbers Wednesday, said Prior.
Ontario Football Alliance president Don Edwards, whose son Spencer plays for the Cambridge Lions varsity squad, said Thursday he was optimistic the situation could be resolved — until he learned of the suspensions.
He also expressed disappointment on behalf of affected players.
The Lions organization had three teams — bantam, junior varsity and varsity — competing in the OPFL and five teams competing in the OFL.