Remembering OFSAA 2019

It's the morning of the opening kick-off for the 2023 OFSAA 'AAA' Boys' Rugby championships being held in Arva, ON, and with Barrie North's Sr side qualifying the other day by besting Collingwood in the GBSSA finals, I'm reminded of my final season coaching high school rugby, back in 2019. 

Wait, you say, Arva? I've lived in Ontario my whole life, but where in the world is that?

Arva, ON, is the home of Medway HS, a long-time key player in the high school rugby scene, and the host of the 2023 OFSAA championship. It is a quiet hamlet a few minutes north of London, ON, up highway #4 and is hosting the rugby championships again after a successful go around in 2022. 

Long time friends will recall that when Barrie Central was officially closed in June of 2016, I took my coaching show on the road to Barrie North, and together with my great friend and co-coach Ron Andrews, took over the Sr Boys' rugby program for the last few years of our career prior to retirement. It wasn't like we were starting all over again since the program had been skillfully steered by it's present head coach, Mike Alcombrack, who graciously handed over the reins, but we felt compelled to put our 'Central-style' thumbprint on it. With our retirement looming, we both knew that time was short to install the necessary skills and understanding to have our new charges perform at a level where we could anticipate a return to the OFSAA stage. 

Like the quote from Coach Hotz, it's all about how you react.

The lad's eyebrows were collectively raised when we implemented the mandatory winter training sessions, focusing on skills that were only marginally accepted as important, having never spent so much time on them in their past. Not the least of those were their ball in hand + pass-catch skills, something we had long cherished as vital to success, even adopting the adage '"if you can't pass, you perish", so the grumbling came fast and furious as we focused on the minutia of effective technique. Another was the thrilling world of footwork and its impact on evasion skills, the end goal to avoid contact situations and their potential for loss of possession. Drill after drill, we harped on their execution, much to their displeasure. 

In the end, their skills and understanding lagged behind their passion for 'dubs', culminating in a playoff loss to a talented Nantyr Shores team in the 2017 GBSSA finals.

Fast forward to the 2018 rugby season, and the return of a sizeable portion of the team that had transitioned into Gr 12, the resistance to our 'Central' way was noticeably lower, and we took the next steps by ramping up the drill's intensity to replicate game-like conditions. Integral to this was the implementation of lunch-time touch and its recreation of game time conditions, but the numbers were lacking, foreshadowing what was to come. Just like we experienced in our previous coaching lives, the 2018 version embraced most of the changes, the 'rugby IQ' growing weekly, resulting in a return to the GBSSA championship, this time facing Banting. 

Despite the significant improvements in skills and knowledge, the lad's lack of commitment to the physical side of training came back to haunt them as a significantly stronger Banting team used their physicality to best us. 

Bride's maids again.

With the sting of two unsuccessful bids for the OFSAA experience fresh in their minds, the fall of the 2018-2019 school year was punctuated by the grunts and clangs of the lad's weight room antics, notably led by the sizeable number who had chosen to return for a 'victory lap' in quest of their first collective OFSAA trip. Gone were the moans and groans of "we've never done that before" as the lunch touch sessions and night practices showcased their growing skills, recognition, and enhanced physical abilities. 

The only thing missing was a tour!

As Ron and I had experienced many times in our past, nothing unites a side like a rugby tour, and with so many incredible experiences to choose from, we queried the lads on how many would be willing to put in the necessary work to raise enough funds to make it happen. With a resounding affirmation, the only thing left was to plan. At the top of the wish list was a return to Florida's Disney World, a two-time Central touring escapade that were both classified as amazing successes. Unfortunately, things had changed significantly in the SCDSB, and with permission denied, we scrambled to find something that Sr admin would say yes to. 

If you can't be allowed to take a group of teenagers to arguably the safest place on the planet, taking them to the modern version of Soddam & Gomorrah was the logical choice, yes? Armed with the knowledge that the 7-a-side World Rugby's only North American stop was in Las Vegas, and the rugby crazies in that part of the world ran an invitational tournament that had a high school 15-a-side version, we rolled the dice and resubmitted our application bound for the USA's 'Sin City'.

Of course we were granted permission. What could go wrong in Vegas baby!

The buzz of excitement was palpable as the best kept secret that we would be touring Vegas was finally revealed to players and parents alike. We had a tried and true fundraising vehicle that would assist with the dreaded chase for the necessary cash to make the experience a reality, and following that first tour meeting, the lads were rabid about the possibility. That infusion of energy provided the push to achieve near 100% buy-in from the team and attendance at training and fitness was at an all time high. 

I could write a 7-page post about that tour, but that's not the focus of this particular post, so I'll just leave it at IT WAS AS BRILLIANT AS IT WAS MEMORABLE, and was just what the doctor ordered for unifying the lads. I'll write a follow up post to this one with a better synopsis of the tour.

Armed with enhanced skills, understanding, fitness, and game experience, the lads took to the 2019 GBSSA season like bees to honey, steamrolling their way to a 3rd straight trip to the championship game, this time facing Banting for the rematch. Ron and I both knew that something special was brewing as the lads dominated in all aspects of the game, winning that elusive GBSSA crown in convincing fashion, erasing the disappointment of the previous few seasons.

Here we come OFSAA!

Being a relative unknown at the provincial level, we were seeded in a challenging slot, meaning that our first hurdle was to go through host side Brooklyn SS in the opening round. Despite all of the hours invested in preparing for this moment, the jitters got the best of the lads, and a late game surge aside, we bowed to Brooklyn. It would have been easy for them to hang their heads, feel sorry for themselves, and shrug the remainder of the tournament away, but kudos to them for steeling their resolve by setting their sights on the Consolation Championship. 

If you're familiar with rugby and the OFSAA championship, you'll already be aware of how tremendously difficult the tournament is both mentally and physically, but in case you're reading this and know nothing about it, it would be good for you to understand that the kids who play in a championship game (Gold medal or Consolation) will have played 4 games in total over 3 days ... 1 the opening day, 2 on the middle day, and 1 on the day of the final. These games are 40 min in total because the Law Book for rugby limits the number of minutes that a player can potentially participate in for a 24 hour period. Since it is the provincial championship, the games are intense, physical, and most likely hot since it's annually played in the first week of June. With an opening round loss, North survived 'Hell Day' with wins over first a gritty, athletic John F Ross (Guelph) team, then a tightly contested affair over Sacred Heart (Ottawa) that wasn't decided until the overtime period that came down to penalty kicks when Gr 11 center Wyatt Pilz slotted a toe-punch from the extreme right from over 30m away. 

The berth earned in to the Consolation Final meant revisiting an old rival for Ron and I. Over the many years at Central, we faced perennial powerhouse Brantford Collegiate in a number of medal games, winning our fair share, but they were always tightly contested and extremely physical. The 2019 version proved to be no less epic as both teams played their hearts out despite their exhausted, incredibly sore bodies, willing themselves to give every last drop of energy in the cause. As the final whistle sounded, the scoreboard in favour of the 'Good Guys', our boys let out a collective sigh of relief, embraced each other, and celebrated North's first OFSAA championship banner, albeit as "the best of the rest". Those on their victory lap in particular grinned ear to ear with their sense of accomplishment, content that they had secured their legacy in the history of their beloved school. 

Ron and I shared a number of emotional moments with the boys and the parents that had travelled to support the effort, but the warmest, most genuine of the day's embraces were the ones we shared as we basked in the glory of what we had accomplished together, our coaching partnership reaching its inevitable conclusion. Very few other teachers can lay claim to a legacy like ours, decades in the making, a lineage stacked with OFSAA medals of all denominations, and the sheer elation of capping off those careers with one last OFSAA victory filled us with both elation and sadness, in equal amounts. With Ron retiring that June, and me following in the following January, our time at the helm of the good ship rugby had reached its conclusion.

Ron's become one of my dearest friends over the years. As he eloquently pointed out one day, we worked side by side in the pressure cooker of high school athletics, share an exorbitant amount of success, and can freely admit that we had nary a disagreement over that 24 or so years. Not too many duos can profess that accomplishment.

These days, all that remain are the dusty memories of those years, and while the gold-silver-bronze medals are trophies worthy of proud grins, I'll unequivocally state that were pretty gosh darned proud of what we accomplished at Barrie North in a very short amount of time.

Cue the slow walk into the sunset ... Annnnd CUT!