This news made me realize that I am a rotten CFL fan.
For the second time in less than a decade, the Canadian Football League is making an end run out of the nation's capital, suspending operations of the Ottawa Renegades five weeks before the start of training camp. The league will play this season with an eight-team schedule while it continues efforts to return to Ottawa under new ownership in the years ahead.I've been to one game and that was when John Candy was in the audience just behind us in the north stands at Ottawa's Frank Clare stadium. Fifteen years ago. But you know, I have tried without any luck to find a CFL t-shirt or, better, one of those long plastic horns to march around town on game day with in a Hamiton Ti-Cats or Saskatchewan Rough Riders parka like 1950s CFL fans. In fact, the last time I had an intelligent conversation it was with my late grandfather-in-law who began it with "So, you like the rugger?" Hard to run a league on that sort of general level of interest in the current game.
Shed another tear for Moncton, however, whose hopes for that tenth franchise have now been dashed again.
Comments
T-Bo - April 10, 2006 3:17 PM
Bad news on Ottawa. I've been to four and a half Ottawa games, all when the team was the Rough Riders. The half was because my wimp brother-in-law was scared that, having driven from Montreal for a Saturday afternoon game, we might not make it back in time for the Habs game we had tickets for that night because it had snowed heavily the night before (!). Needless to say, we could have stayed....
I've always loved the CFL, ever since a former league coach was tapped to be our replacement junior high English teacher when the original teacher had a breakdown (we took collective credit for that, another story). Anyway, the next summer we went to see his team play Saskatchewan, and .....Ron Lancaster! George Reed!....in my first experience with shifting allegiances, I became a Greenies fan.
It IS hard to find good CFL souvenirs anywhere. But as for the horn (I hate those things)....the last game I went to, Saskatchewan's playoff game with Montreal last November, they were selling them just after you walked into the Big O. Plus, there were Thundersticks on every seat. I almost turned around and left. I also left the $30 (Cdn.) foam Alouettes bird head laying, though the more I think about that the more I regret it....
Have fun on vacation, at least the part that is supposed to be fun (oysters, oh yeah). I used to be able to take a couple weeks in April to see the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, thanks to a friend of mine who works for the organization and a wimpy sports editor boss. But every high school team playing every day that's nice (out of necessity in the Syracuse area), even during spring break week, and an editor who's more responsible, precludes that from happening now.
Alan - April 10, 2006 3:39 PM
Hey - are you a sports writer down there? Maybe you can explain the high school sports regiional system. I have a hell of a time understanding who beat who and which game is the big one come NYS basketball or football championship time.
T-Bo - April 10, 2006 4:45 PM
It's confusing to those of us who are involved in it day to day! Hope this helps....
Sections of the NYSPHSAA (New York State Public High School Athletic Association):
Section 1: Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester
Section 2: Capital District (Albany)
Section 3: Central New York (Syracuse, Utica, Watertown)
Section 4: Southern Tier (Binghamton, Elmira)
Section 5: Genesee Valley (Rochester)
Section 6: Western NY (Buffalo)
Section 7: Champlain Area
Section 8: Nassau
Section 9: Orange, Sullivan, Ulster
Section 10: St. Lawrence Area
Section 11: Suffolk
New York City, of course, is separate, mostly under PSAL (Public Schools Athletic League). They don't compete in the state football playoffs, and their basketball champions (boys and girls) are automatically placed in the Final Four of the Federation tournament, with the NYSPHSAA champs as well as private and Catholic School champs.
This site actually has the map so you can visualize the areas involved:
www.nysphsaa.org/html/secdir/map.html
When state competitions roll around, they break it into regional play, so a team from our area (Section 3) will generally play a team from Section 4, or maybe Section 2, in the first round. Depending on the number of teams involved in each sport, byes also come into play for better teams.
Alan - April 10, 2006 5:01 PM
But then there are Divisions or Classes like A, B, BB, JJ and WWW that also seem to be part of it. What does that mean?
T-Bo - April 10, 2006 6:33 PM
Those are the school size designations. For state purposes, the enrollment classifications are AA, A, B, C and D. For most sports, state championships are awarded in each class. Some sections have different classifications than the state, but that's getting rarer and rarer. Section V, for instance, has Class CC and Class DD for the bigger C and D schools in basketball, but the winners then go against the C and D champs for a berth in the state playoffs.
Also, FYI: the state football championships are always in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse during the weekend following our Thanksgiving (a Canadian friend pointed out that your Thanksgiving is first on the calendar, which proves you invented the concept). The NYSPHSAA basketball Final Four is in Glens Falls (north of Albany) for boys and Troy for girls early in March, with the Federation championships the next weekend, boys and girls both at Glens Falls.
A good way to keep track of things come state tourney time is to go to ihigh.com and then find New York in the state listings. They have the brackets for all of the state tournaments.