Barrie football players miss date with destiny
Paperwork snag for Vikings’ starting slotback disqualifies them from championship
BARRIE, ONT.— The “uncrowned champions” rose from the bleachers to shake hands after a game they didn’t get to play. None of them wore pads or a helmet, though each sported a green-and-gold Vikings jersey atop a shirt and tie — the game-day uniform for high school football players.
But it wasn’t game-day for the senior boys from Barrie North Collegiate Institute. Because of an 11thhour realization that the team’s starting slotback hadn’t filled out paperwork after he transferred schools, the Vikings were disqualified from the Simcoe County Athletic Association’s championship match — news delivered to the team in a tear-filled meeting barely 24 hours ahead of kickoff.
On Thursday afternoon, at the brand-new turf field at Georgian College, the Vikings found themselves watching from the sidelines as the Bear Creek Kodiaks, the rivals they defeated last week in a thrilling come-from-behind victory — took home the championship banner. Hence their self-conferred moniker: “the uncrowned champions.”
The Vikings took to the field for a handshake with the victors after the game. Their shot at glory — and a six-game win streak into the postseason — was intercepted.
“Looks like it’s going to be a ‘what if?’ for the rest of our lives,” sighed Patrick Ivany, a 17-year-old defensive tackle for the Vikings. “We all feel we could put on our equipment right now, run out on that field and just play . . . It’s just a bitter taste.”
The disqualification came in a ruling Tuesday night from the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools Association, which oversees athletics in Barrie and the surrounding area. Mark Keating, the association’s president, said the rule is black and white: if a team has an ineligible player, each victory with that player transforms into an “immediate” forfeit.
“It’s an absolute type of thing,” he told the Star, “in order to promote fairness on the field.”
It’s also a rationale that has outraged and saddened Vikings coaches, players and their parents. One man, a burly fellow in a plaid jacket, said it was like being “torpedoed by bureaucrats.” Parents staged a meeting with a local TV crew Wednesday night to push for a reversal of the decision, then stormed the local school board Thursday morning in a last-ditch effort to get the boys on the field. In the end, the association stuck to the rule book.
Moments before game time, the young man at the centre of the squabble sat alone in the parking lot, behind the wheel of a red Jeep, eating a granola bar. At 5-foot-not-much, he wore his Vikings jersey and a black shirt, with a purple bow tie pinned at the collar. As he got out and joined his fellow players, teammates threw their arms around him, patted him on the back and asked him how he’s doing.
“It sucks so bad,” said Elijah, 17, taking his seat on the metal bleachers, polite and articulate with a mop of dirty blond hair.
“If I had the option, I would have been happy to step down from playing,” he added. “For these guys in (their final year), it was the last down of football they’ll ever play. It’s just a
“(The rule is) an absolute type of thing in order to promote fairness on the field.” MARK KEATING PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIAN BAY SECONDARY SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
terrible thing.”
As Elijah explained, he had “no idea” there was paperwork to make him an eligible player. Like several of his teammates, he had transferred to Barrie North from Barrie Central after the latter school shut down last year. The issue for him was that he also went to school in Florida last fall, when he lived with his aunt and uncle in St. Cloud for a few months.
Vikings head coach Gary Hamilton said he didn’t know Elijah would need to fill out a special transfer form, because he came to the school as a former Barrie Central student. It was also news to Elijah’s dad, Tim Kent.
“We were never presented with anything; we weren’t aware of the policy,” Kent said, who runs an affordable-housing company in Barrie.
Down in Florida, Elijah said he did play football, though the competition there was “totally different.” He only saw action on the kick-return squad, but sat out for most of the season after he broke his arm in a bull-riding mishap, another American venture he took up during his time there.
Last Friday, in what may be his last game ever, Elijah and the Vikings rallied from a 17-0 deficit to defeat the Bear Creek Kodiaks 35-27. In the second half, Elijah caught a pass and weaved through the defence to score a vital touchdown, his dad proudly explained.
They were set to play the Nantyr Shores Tritons in the school board championship Thursday, but after the disqualification, the athletic association invited Bear Creek to take their spot in the finals.
The Vikings decided to practise anyway Wednesday night, hopeful that the association would have a change of heart.
Hamilton, the Vikings coach, said he almost broke into tears the next morning, when his players came to school in their game-day attire: jerseys over shirts and ties. “This foot- ball team is just family,” he said. “That’s how tight we are.”
During the game Thursday afternoon, there was much theorizing over how the association learned that Elijah didn’t have the proper paperwork. Some noted that Keating is vice-principal at Innisdale, a school the Vikings defeated during the regular season, and that many of his school’s students also transferred from Barrie Central after it closed; maybe, it was suggested, one of them blabbed to Keating. Others suspected somebody from Bear Creek had complained after their loss in the semifinals last week.
Keating would only say that he received an “inquiry” into a Vikings player’s eligibility in early November — before the semifinal match against Bear Creek. He said he informed the Barrie North principal and then determined Tuesday evening that the student hadn’t filled out the required paperwork.
A similar controversy arose last month at a school in the local Catholic board: St. Joan of Arc Secondary. Keating said a student there was mistakenly declared eligible by the association after he transferred to that school from a different district. He said because his eligibility was “misinterpreted,” that football team didn’t have to forfeit any games; the player just has to sit out until he’s declared eligible again.
For Kent, the association’s rule-parsing contradicts the spirit of high school sport. It’s not like Elijah was recruited to play for Barrie North, he said. His school closed and he was sent there, and besides, they didn’t know the paperwork existed.
“They have football for the kids. It’s not for the staff and the administrators. It’s for the kids,” he said.
Thursday’s game concluded when a defensive back for the Kodiaks picked off a pass, and the team was able to run out the clock to win and defeat Nantyr Shores 10-4. They assembled beneath the goalposts with the championship and hollered boisterously as their parents snapped photos.
Earlier, on the sidelines, Elijah said he was heartened to have the support of his teammates and his school. His father threw an arm around his shoulders. “You guys are a class act — you’re a class act,” he said with a big smile.
Elijah grinned, a bit bashful, and gave him a gentle shove. “Thanks, Dad,” he said.