OFSAA Bowl Series a hit at TD Place

Organizers billed it as, “18 teams, 9 Bowls, 3 days.”

Had they known what the weather would bring, maybe they would have further hyped it as a “kickoff to Winterlude.”

Just the same, by all accounts, taking the OFSAA Bowl Series out of the Hamilton and Toronto area for the first time and bringing it to TD Place was a huge success, the snow, wind and cold of the first two days be darned.

“The work was more than worth it,” said Gary Schreider, the soonto-retire NCSSA athletic co-ordinator and convener of the event. “Just seeing the kids experience playing in this stadium.

“My go-to line is that this event isn’t about the (university) scouts or about the media coverage. Or anyone else for that matter. I mean they are all part of it, but ... it’s about the kids and just seeing them enjoying the experience so much, seeing them go back onto the field after their games to take it all in. Just everything about it. That’s what it is all about.”

Schreider, the former Queen’s Golden Gael, first went to OFSAA way back in 2013 with the idea to give Ottawa a try. The instant response was pushback from many of the schools in western and southern Ontario. The travel distance was the natural sticking point and several schools said they would go back to regional bowls rather than travel for a provincewide Bowl Series.

The history of the Bowl Series goes back almost 20 years when the NFL and CFL partnered to host it at the then SkyDome in Toronto. When that relationship fell apart, Rogers wanted $60,000 in rent for the day-long event that included just five games at that time.

OFSAA couldn’t justify that kind of money so it became earmarked for Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. The first year it was supposed to go there, in 2014, the new stadium wasn’t ready and organizers had to use Centennial Park in Etobicoke as a fallback plan.

Then Tim Hortons Field hosted it every year from 2015.

All the while, Schreider wasn’t about to give up and finally, in 2015, OFSAA gave him the go-ahead while making it mandatory that all schools participate if they earned their way. That set the wheels in motion and Schreider set out to bring it home for Canada 150 and play it the day after the 105th Grey Cup. But then he couldn’t secure enough hotel rooms for the Sunday night, and it had to be pushed to this year.

The local highlight ended up being Ashbury College’s thrilling last-second win in the Independent Bowl to highlight Day 1. The series concluded with two games on Day 3:

CENTRAL BOWL

Joel Watson passed for 129 yards and three touchdowns as Jacob Hespeler High School from Cambridge steamrolled Gananoque 480. Hespeler receiver Xavier Pineda caught a pair of touchdown passes, while Alex Marmon and Austin Dubois also found the end zone and the winners rolled up 17 first-quarter points and led 31-0 at the half.

SIMCOE BOWL

Holy Trinity from Courtice walked through their season 9-0 by outscoring opponents 434-20 and made believers of Barrie St. Joan of Arc. Holy Trinity handed the Barrie school its first loss of the campaign, 38-21. Four of Matt Brown’s six completions went for touchdowns: two to Josh Metzner and one each to Brady Loenhart and Aiden Ali. Quarterback Justin Winn threw for one major for Joan of Arc and ran for another.

The work was more than worth it. Just seeing the kids experience playing in this stadium.