I’m not going to get into the reasons, everything from lower enrollment to higher costs, but I see where the Bay of Quinte high school football league this season boasts all of four teams. And, only three will play senior.
Centennial, Eastside (the former Moira Secondary School) and Bayside will field senior and junior teams this season; Trenton will compete in junior only.
Wow. When I came back to Belleville in 1991 there were senior and junior teams from Centennial, Quinte (R.I.P.), Moira, Bayside, Trenton, Centre Hastings and North Hastings. Plus, Napanee was still in our district. And, later, St. Paul’s and St. Theresa came aboard.
Even when some schools could no longer field full teams, a nine-man league was created which included Nicholson. That meant, for a long time, pretty much every school in the Bay of Quinte region was playing football.
Not now.
As I mentioned earlier, enrollments are down and costs (equipment, insurance, etc.) are sky-high compared to even 30 years ago. The Quinte Skyhawks minor rep program is also likely to have had an impact on high school player numbers.
When I started high school in the fall of 1971, I did Grade 9 at Belleville Collegiate Institute (R.I.P.) and was deemed too small to play on the junior team. But, to my great delight, our coach, Mr. Pearlberg, offered me a spot on the roster as manager.
The job was basically a glorified water boy position, and holding a tackling dummy in practice to get run over by our burly fullback Phil Harvey, but I jumped at the chance to be a part of the team. It also meant afternoons off for home games at the Fairgrounds.
Four years and about 75 pounds later I was at Centennial for my Grade 13 year and was a member of the first Chargers team to ever beat the cross-town rival Quinte Saints in senior football. But, that same year, 1975, we also became the first senior Chargers team to ever lose to Bayside. We were a weird team.
My favourite — and as it turned out, final — year of football came in 1977 at the University of Toronto where I played in the Interfaculty League which featured full equipment and full contact. A rarity at most colleges.
I was studying Physical and Health Education and because so many of our guys were playing varsity football for the Blues, we couldn’t field a team in the Interfac league. So, a bunch of us from PHE were put in a pool and ‘drafted’ by existing teams. I went to Medicine.
At my first Meds practice, their captain approached me.
“Hey,” he said, “since you’re in phys ed and are probably running around and lifting weights every day, can you play both ways?”
“Sure,” I replied.
I wound up playing on both lines, plus punted. I never left the field.
Like I said, my favourite year of football.
Too bad, today, a lot of kids around here won’t get the chance to enjoy a similar kind of experience at the high school level anymore. Or even just get to play. Once.
NFL QUICK HITS
So it wasn’t just me who seemed to notice a plethora of flags flying during most of NFL Week 4’s Sunday games. A combined 255 penalties called, to be exact, for an average of 18 per game. The most of any week, we’re told, in more than 10 years.
Says NFL writer Rich Jones of The Daily Mail: “The endless stream of flags needs to stop. If the NFL does not get a grip on the problem, fans are going to grow increasingly tired.”
Like me.
PWHL NICKNAMES
Nickname suggestions for the newest PWHL teams: Hamilton Iron, San Jose Surfers, Las Vegas Vixens, Detroit Motors.
By the way, why does it take so long to conceive and then release team nicknames in this league? The PWHL seemingly took forever to name its original clubs, and there was a similar delay when Vancouver and Seattle entered the circuit.
I don’t get it.
Sure, the marketing department wants to hit a home run, but it’s not exactly rocket science either. Most pro teams look for a name that connects with the community, sounds bold and aggressive, and doesn’t alienate potential supporters.
But it shouldn’t take forever to decide.
