"New Coach and High Hopes-For Ottawa Sooners Men's Semi-Pro Football Team"

The following article by Tim Baines appeared on Friday, May 24th, the day before the Sooners' first home game of the 2019 season. Unfortunately, they lost it 21-0.

What a difference a year makes. 

In 2018, Brandon Weekes was the Northern Football Conference’s fourth-leading receiver – with 18 catches for 322 yards. Now he’s the Ottawa Sooners head coach, expecting big things from his team during the 2019 season... 

From player to head coach of a football team in Ontario’s semi-pro football league, it has certainly been an adjustment for the 32-year-old. 

“Hanging up the cleats, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve done,” said Weekes, who took over as coach when Ken Evraire stepped away in the off-season. “The biggest thing is letting go of the sense of urgency to want to play.” 

The team, which had been called the Invaders, became part of the Sooners family and was renamed last year. The Sooners’ season ended in the NFC semi-finals with a 29-0 loss to the GTA All-Stars, the eventual league champs. Weekes is confident this season’s team, with an infusion of younger players – some from the Jr. Riders – can accomplish big things. 

“I’m building with a core base of 24-26-year-olds,” he said. “They’re in their prime football shape. We can wear people down. I think we’ll go further than we did last year, we’re a championship-calibre team. A championship is always the goal, but I want to get them to the level where it’s always high competition. You don’t want to go in and roll over just because it’s GTA. We have to go in and win week by week.” 

Among the key players on the defensive side of the ball will be safety Jordon Gorgichuk and middle linebacker Cameron Veck (who will miss Week 1 with an ankle injury and will be replaced by veteran Nick Lortie). 

Offensively, the team – which will lean on a pass-first philosophy – has quarterback Alex Gauthier and running back Dylan Hines, “the leader on our offence.” 

There’s also wideout Bobby Massie and slot receiver Mike Mortley who Weekes said of: “The dude’s a specimen. He’s a basketball player, now he’s a full-blown football player. He’s like 6-foot-6, 240 lbs. and he looks like a freak of nature.” 

There’s also a solid mix of vets including offensive lineman Amir Farhat, a longtime member of the squad. 

“We still have guys who are in their 40s,” said Weeks. “We need the older guys, especially in the locker room. We need that calm poise from our vets who understand that while we’re opening against a very strong team – they’re beatable.”

The Patriots were an 7-1 team in 2018 so it was a tough gig to start on. Still according to Tim Baines, the game might have been more competitive if not for a few mistakes.

The Sooners had two huge plays taken away on penalties. A punt return touchdown by Daniel McGrowder was called back for clipping and a missed field goal was returned 107 yards to the four-yard line by Austin Mackay, but the Sooners were penalized for tripping.

The Sooners next host the Tri-City Outlaws at Carleton on Saturday, June 1st.  The Outlaws wer3 4-4 last season and began their season with a 28-7 loss to the defending champion GTA All-Stars.

NOTE: The image above was posted on Keenan Photography's Facebook account. The full gallery can be found here.

NFC Quarter Finals: Ottawa Sooners 21 at Sudbury Spartans 14

This game was actually played on July 28th but having been away much of that time, I am only finding out about it now.

The recap below is an abbreviated article from the Sudbury Star and was written by one Ben Leeson. I believe he took the accompanying picture as well. I am copying it from the league's website but am unable to find a direct link to it.

Hunter Holub could have found reasons to hang his head Saturday night. 

His Sudbury Spartans had just dropped a heartbreaker 21-14 decision to the Ottawa Sooners in their Northern Football Conference quarter-final, in a game the Nickel City squad may have won, if not for a dropped TD, a pair of missed field goals and a late fumble. 

...

Hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2015, the Spartans had a slow start against the Sooners, who were missing a couple of strong starters, but remained a quality club on both sides of the ball. 

They showed that when quarterback Danny Mullins led a long first-quarter drive and finished with a short keeper for a TD. The ensuing convert made it 7-0. 

Ottawa’s offence sputtered deep in its own end near the midway mark of the second frame, however, allowing Sudbury to take over at the visitors’ 34-yard line. A 14-yard catch and run by Josh Cuomo put the locals inside the 20, where they came within a hair of scoring a major of their own when Holub found James Howatt open in the end zone, but Howatt couldn’t quite hold onto the pass. 

Spartans kicker Massimo Cimino then attempted a field goal, but booted it just wide.
Sudbury’s defence stymied Ottawa on another drive down the field, sacking Mullins to end the half. 

Holub had just missed Poirier with a long pass when the first-year quarterback aired it out for No. 20 again, this time connecting for a 87-yard score and bringing the crowd to its feet. Cimino’s PAT tied the score, 7-7, with 7:50 left in the third quarter. 

The Spartans missed on another field goal attempt later in the third. 

Ottawa restored its lead (with) Daniel McGrowder’s eight-yard reception in the fourth quarter, then scored again on an option pitch to Mike Leno. 

The Spartans embarked on a strong drive late in the contest that culminated in Holub’s wild scramble for a 21-yard TD, narrowing the score to 21-14, but could come no closer.

The Sooners will travel to Toronto on August 11th to challenge the powerful GTA All-Stars in the league semi-final. Tough gig; The All-Stars beat the Sooners at home earlier this year 39-16.

Ken Evraire Named Ottawa Sooners (Semi-Pro) Head Coach

How about that? Evraire did it for the Invaders as a start up organization, now he'll do it for one that's been established for decades.

I'd be curious to know what's being said around the Northern Football Conference.

It's good to see Evraire this invested in the local football scene still. When people discuss the poor management of the Ottawa Rough Riders, you invariably hear about drafting a dead dude and Dexter Manley. But Evraire's handling, as a rising star player, was deplorable and discouraging from a fan's perspective.  Here is his own recollection of the event.

My arrival was simply a settling of accounts with the Ottawa Rough Riders and head coach Steve Goldman. The Riders (had) gone out and spent a lot of money on free agents (Glenn Kulka, David Williams, John Mandarich, Tony Cherry) and the (league) GMs were not tickled to say the least. I had suffered a slight tear in my quad and as luck would have it the Riders tried to hide me by putting me on waivers. No team would want damaged goods or at least that is what the Riders brass thought. With a blink of an eye and a call to the league office, I was claimed by Hamilton.

More of that here.

So yeah. At the time (I don't believe these rules exist anymore) you could recall a player from waivers once...but not twice. The Rough Riders "brain trust" back then, incompetent asses that they were, recalled Evraire once but were unable to do so the second time they put him on waivers so while they thought they were being clever and evaluating interest in him, they accidentally gave him away for nothing.

In his second season with Hamilton (1992), Evraire would snatch 61 passes for 1081 yards and three touchdowns and take the trophy for most outstanding Canadian in the East.

Oops?

Some Rough Rider bungles have become legendary. Those that haven't aren't any less heinous. While defending this fan base prior to the RedBlacks finally becoming a reality, I used to point to the fact that the organization punched itself in the sack for 15 years and averaged 5 wins a season during that period yet still had a hardcore following. That's not a negative, that's an incredible positive that manifested itself when a competent organization was finally delivered to the city.

Ottawa Invaders To Play Under Sooners Brand in 2018

This is an interesting development.

To be entirely honest, I came across this news completely by coincidence. I was actually looking to find out if the Invaders were playing at all this year fully prepared for the news that they would not.

The Ottawa Invaders first took to the field in the summer of 2010 with the goal of providing a place to play for players who had exhausted all amateur options due to age. With former Ottawa Rough Rider Ken Evraire at the helm, they achieved a 3-4-1 record in their inaugural season, then reached the Northern Football Conference championship game in their second and third seasons.

I can't speak to more recent seasons because I was not involved in any way. During the early years however, I managed the team's website and can confidently state that there was no lack of effort from founders James McAllister, Richard Smith II and Erik Faucon. They genuinely wished to emphasize the "pro" aspect of semi-pro football from both an on-field product standpoint and that of the fan experience.

Evraire's high profile, as both a former pro player and a media personality, was difficult to replace following his departure in 2012 and it seemed like the team was far less visible over the past couple of seasons. They remained quite solid on the field though, posting 6-2 and 4-4 records in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Nonetheless, I feared their reduced exposure might hinder their ability to recruit and therefore sustain the team financially so I braced for the possibility that The Invaders might go quietly into that good night.

Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be the case, at least not entirely. We'll find out tomorrow whether their name and logo will remain in circulation beyond this weekend. But the good news is that a post-junior and/or CIS playing option remains available in Ottawa under the guidance of a club that has been in operation since 1960. I can't help but view that as win.

Note: Above photo copied from this nugget.ca article.