No Hope For UNB Football

By TONY VON RICHTER
Published in the UNB Brunswickan on February 17, 2009

With the Super Bowl taking place over a week ago, signalling the end of major football until the CFL starts up in the summer, it means it’s time for the annual “UNB needs a football team” edition of View from the Sidelines.

I’ve stated many times in the past why I think UNB would benefit from a team, so this year, rather than me wishing and hoping that we’d somehow get a team, I decided to go straight to the source and see how realistic of a possibility a team is.

“I wouldn’t even know how to go there,” says Kevin Dickie, UNB Athletic Director. “We went through some difficult changes last year in athletics. I don’t want this to sound the wrong way, but when it came to budgeting on Jan. 23, we realized we were ahead of the curve. We really could not have ran a balanced budget in ‘09-10 if we didn’t make the necessary changes.”

“We just made changes to reduce the size of our varsity program, so really, I don’t even think about anything else right now, whether it be football or any sport. There are a lot of great CIS sports out there. Football is definitely one of them, but for us right now I’d rather just get through the decision we made from last year.”

Recently, some people were excited by talk of an Atlantic Football League, specifically with comments by league creator Barry Ogden that the AFL would be comprised of teams in Fredericton, Saint John, and Moncton, and that the two former teams would carry the UNB name – although the team members wouldn’t have to be enrolled at either institution to play.

The UNB Saint John Athletic Director stated that the campus already had a football club that isn’t funded by the university and that wouldn’t be changing for the coming year. Dickie says that Ogden has never spoken to him about reviving the Red Bombers.
“I honestly don’t know anything about it. Obviously being the Director of Athletics, I’m in the middle of a lot of conversations and I’ve never had a phone call or an email related to football that I haven’t returned.”

While putting a UNB team in the AFL doesn’t appear likely, what about forming a proper club team?

“We have talked about club football going back to last year at about this time and we really had some significant conversations about that would be a good step to have happen. I think that how it’s unfolded is a little bit different than the university taking ownership of it. When you talk about club programming here, it’s for university students, not for university students and then X number of percent from outside. So I really don’t know what that [AFL] group is working on right now.”

Aside from monetary issues, Dickie indicated that there would be logistical and staffing issues with adding another team, as well as the issue of gender equity.

CIS rules state that member schools must have an equal number of men’s and women’s teams competing in CIS athletics. This means that if UNB were to add a varsity football squad to the current eight team line-up, the Reds would also have to add another women’s varsity sport.

Despite the large obstacles preventing a UNB football team, Dickie admits that he is a football fan and ideally the school would have a squad of their own.

“I don’t miss any Saskatchewan Roughriders games when I’m back home and I’ve been to two universities where there was football and it was a big part of my life when growing up. In a perfect world, it would be great, but everyone knows that universities across Canada right now aren’t living in a perfect world.”

Like Dickie said, in a perfect world, UNB would have a football team and the Red Bombers would ride again. But at the current time, there’s no feasible way, short of a large influx of cash or cutting a great number of teams and personnel, to make it happen.

So will UNB have a football team anytime soon? No.

Should they someday when it’s more feasible? Yes.

Tony von Richter is a former Sports Editor of The Brunswickan and is the current Sports Bureau Chief for Canadian University Press. Feel free to contact him at managing@thebruns.ca

UNB Red Bombers Part of Proposed Grid League

By SCOTT BRIGGS

SAINT JOHN – Darcy Barker believes there’s room for more football in Saint John.

In fact, the commissioner of the Maritime Football League would welcome another Port City pigskin team.

“I think any football we can get in eastern Canada is good,” Barker said. “If you go to Quebec they have CEGEP football, and they have junior football in Ontario.”

If a new club does indeed take the field in the fall, it would be the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves of the Atlantic Football League. Organizers of the AFL also plan to field teams in Fredericton and Moncton.

The new league would target players aged 18-24 wishing to attend a post-secondary institution immediately after high school. Players in that category often have difficulty playing for university teams that are under the Canadian Interuniversity Sport umbrella.

CIS teams often recruit older players who come to campus with CEGEP or junior football experience under their belts, making it difficult for players coming straight out of high school to make the grade on the college gridiron.

Barker played high school football at Simonds with John Kane, who went on to play for Acadia. Kane, however, was the exception instead of the rule.

“He was a 17-year-old rookie going against 20-year-old rookies,” said Barker, now the head coach at Simonds. “John was probably the top prospect coming out of Atlantic Canada back then, but I know lots of high school kids who are just too small and too young (to play for CIS teams).”

Barker said the AFL would provide a good level of competition for players while providing an opportunity to live at or near home. The commissioner also feels there’s a niche for a loop with younger players.

The MFL included 10 teams in 2008, and Barker estimates that only about 20 per cent of the players were in the 18-20 age group. Most of the other 80 per cent, he said, would include players in their mid-20s to mid-30s.

The UNBSJ squad would be considered a club team. Unlike UNBSJ’s varsity teams that are registered with the Atlantic Colleges Athletic Association, club teams do not receive funding from the university.

That’s why AFL organizers need to raise funds through their own efforts and the support of others. Community activist Barry Ogden announced Monday the AFL would begin play in the fall, but admitted the league didn’t have an official schedule, constitution or venues.

Like the MFL, the AFL likes the idea of a pre-season jamboree.

“We’re definitely going to support it,” Barker said of the MFL’s position on the new circuit. “For guys coming out of high school, it’s probably their best option right now.

“It could be very interesting. As long as they stay local, they can probably run their teams for $4,000 or $5,000 per season.”

Barker said volunteers could be a key in helping the league get off the ground, adding the area’s passion for football will bring out plenty of helping hands.

“The football community is pretty small, but it’s pretty tightly-knit,” he said. “We would just love to have more football in this area.”

Barker feels a successful AFL could generate enough money to warrant a berth in the CIS. That destination, however, isn’t necessarily his prediction.

“Anything is possible. If you can get the student body on board, they can go to the university and say ‘Look what we’re doing.’ If you can bring 1,200 people or so out to a game, maybe it would be something they would be interested in (supporting).”

Former Fredericton High School head coach Larry Wisniewski is leading the charge in the Capital City. The club team would be called the UNB Red Bombers to honour the university team that ceased operations in 1980.

“From a Fredericton point of view, going the UNB route was the marketing tool to go with, especially with the UNB Red Bombers name,” said Terry McIntyre, a “resource person” working with Wisniewski.

“Those of us in the football community would support that because it’s most viable. Even the kids coming up in the minor system know about the Red Bombers. It’s like Greek mythology.”

The past president of the Capital Area Minor Football Association, McIntyre still sits on the board of directors.

He was involved in helping minor teams play games at Chapman Field on the UNB campus. He’s hopeful the same venue will be used for an AFL club.

“I know there’s time available to schedule games (at Chapman Field),” McIntyre said. “With all-weather turf and lights, you can find time to schedule games.”

McIntyre said securing corporate sponsorship won’t be a pivotal factor for the AFL, if costs are kept under control.

“We haven’t really tested the waters,” the former Mount Allison defensive halfback said. “We’re in the middle of a recession. These operations are going to be run quite frugally. Sponsors will not make or break (the AFL).”

McIntyre added the UNB team has interest in playing home-and-home dates with a club team at the University of Maine Orono, adding that a three-team AFL would create some bye weeks.

He said such a series could become an annual tradition. Those games would also keep the Red Bombers sharp for their AFL season, McIntyre added.

“I think there are three reasonably good groups involved here. There are people who’ve been involved in the game for a long time and people who’ve been involved with starting teams.”

Dan Fougere is behind the effort to bring the AFL to Moncton.

The head coach and general manager of the MFL’s Moncton Marshals favours the formation of a junior team whose better players would be in position to eventually make a CIS squad.

“I’ve always wanted to get a junior team started, so (the AFL) could be part of that,” Fougere said.

“I don’t want to be affiliated with any university, because I don’t want a university telling us how to run our league.

“We all have our opinions on where we fit, and now we just have to compromise. It may not be exactly what I want, but it’s a start.”

Fougere, the president of the Moncton Football Association and past president of Football New Brunswick, said there’s lots of work to do between now and the hopeful kick off in mid-September.

“The drawback I see happening is trying to get officials and working around the high school schedule,” he said. “If we can work that out, I can’t see why it won’t fly.”

Fougere is also concerned about how the AFL will tackle corporate assistance. MFL teams come up with their own individual team plans, and the league doesn’t work together on corporate packages.

Fougere feels the AFL should have one plan as it pursues assistance from the business community.

“The way the economy is going right now, the dollar is going to be tight,” Fougere said. “We have to decide how we’re going to splits costs. We can’t wait until the last minute.

“It’s going to come to a point where we have to sit down for a whole day. We have to do that within a couple of weeks.”

Fougere hopes to know more concrete information about the Moncton team in May.

He’s hopeful of a cycle that would see AFL players give back to the game by refereeing and/or coaching minor football in the area.