uOttawa's Max Charbonneau Receives the OUA's President's Award

The image and text below are cut from a press release announcing the Conference's major award winners.

A senior season to remember for Max Charbonneau, the Ottawa Gee-Gees linebacker takes home the 2023 President’s Award as the OUA’s outstanding stand-up defensive player.

Despite missing time early last season and ultimately playing through a knee injury, the criminology major was still selected by the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers after earning a ticket to the national combine. Returning to the Garnet and Grey for a final season, however, Charbonneau showcases what being an elite tackler with outstanding consistency looks like from a middle linebacker.

A tackle-machine for the Gee-Gees this season, Charbonneau found himself atop the conference when it came to takedowns. The senior linebacker finished with 44 solo and 36 assisted tackles, good for 62.0 in total, which was second across the country. On a game-by-game basis, Charbonneau’s 7.8 tackles per contest also had him among the top three in the conference and nation.

Charbonneau also added a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and blocked kick as part of his award-winning season, becoming the first Gee-Gee to earn the award since 2017 (Jackson Bennett).

1996, Oct 27th: "Gee-Gees Earn Another Shot at Ravens"

Another uOttawa/Carleton double bill best shared as a post.

1961, Oct 2nd: "U of O, Carleton Win College Grid Openers"

After a lengthy quiet spell, there may be a flurry of random-seeming activity on here over the next couple of days.

I'm doing a clean up of old scans from my days of visiting the library for newspaper archives. Anything not already copied here will be so I can finally declutter my little football closet.

The game summary includes both university teams so rather than choose one over the other, I thought it best to make a post of it to link on either page. 

January 1st, 1937: "Fr. Wm. J. Stanton Dies In Crash Near Chatham"

Father William Stanton, long-time coach of several sports at the University of Ottawa in the early 1900s, died in a car accident on new year's day of 1937.

The snippets below are from the evening edition of the January 2nd, 1937, Ottawa Citizen. The Citizen combined reports from the Associated Press, Canadian Press and other sources, which caused the article to be a little disjointed and repetitive. I've chopped out the parts that are more relevant to his football contributions. 

Not mentioned above is that Father Stanton coached the Ottawa Combines team of 1913, a fusion of Ottawa city team (the Rough Riders) and the university of Ottawa club.

Oct 28th, 1989: "Gee-Gees Battle Past Stingers"

Oct 5th, 2013: Return of the Panda

Oct 1st, 2022: "Gendron stars as Gee-Gees roll to Panda Game victory over Ravens"

Finding coverage of regular season university football can be tricky at the best of times. That doesn't normally apply to the well-hyped Panda Game, but unfortunately the coverage of post-game behaviour by students ended up dominating my search results.

The article below is originally from the Ottawa Sun but found through MSN dot com. It was written by Ken Warren and the full version can be read through this link.

In the entire 2021 season, Nicholas Gendron registered a grand total of 173 receiving yards for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Fast forward to Saturday’s Panda Game, when the Gatineau native had the game of his life in front of the packed, spirited house of 23,078 students at TD Place, where the Gee-Gees ran all over the Carleton Ravens in what ended up as a 37-7 victory.

Photography by Emir Atli 

...

Gendron finished the afternoon with eight catches for 211 yards, the fourth best receiving day in Gee-Gees history.

Thousands of students were lined up, still on their way into the stadium, when Gendron slipped behind the Ravens defence and hauled in an 81-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ben Maracle late in the first quarter.

The spectacular play erased an early 7-0 deficit, turning any and all momentum in the Gee-Gees’ favour.

“You know, when the ball is in the air, it’s kind of silent,” Gendron said. “But, when the ball is in your hands and the crowd erupts, it’s just so special. And being in the end zone and seeing my teammates being so happy, it was a great moment. The offensive line did such a great job on that play and the whole game protecting for Ben.”

Photography by Guillaume Sénéchal 

...

A support player a year ago — he caught one pass for 10 yards in the 2021 Panda Game — Gendron has become a key part of the offence for the Gee-Gees, who have won four straight games and are 5-1 overall in Ontario University Athletics conference play.

...

Gendron had plenty of company in posting big numbers on Saturday. Maracle was on his game throughout, completing 20 of 23 passes for 354 yards, adding a second touchdown toss to Willie-Pierre Dimbonji.

Workhorse running back J.P. Cimankinda punished the Ravens defence on the ground, rushing for 166 yards on 31 carries, including two touchdowns. Kicker Campbell Fair made three of five field-goal attempts.

...

The Ravens struck first when quarterback Tanner DeJong connected with Kaseem Ferdinand for a 26-yard touchdown with 6:10 remaining in the opening quarter, but that was it for Carleton scoring.

The Gee-Gees led 10-7 at half-time, as TD Place air was full of potent smells and the traditional colourful back and forth chants between Ravens faithful in the north-side stands and Gee-Gees backers in the southern seats.

But, as the Gee-Gees continued to shut down the Ravens offence and delivered a series of extended drives in the third and fourth quarters, there was little doubt about who would finish on top.

“Just too many mistakes,” first-year Ravens head coach Corey Grant said. “They did a really good job, they had a really good game plan coming in. They executed better than us, and, you know, things just got out of hand at the end there.”

Photography by Greg Mason

Sept 10th, 2022: uOttawa 20 @ McMaster 14

Catching up on recent action with a partial recap from geegees.ca. The photography is by Marisa Settimi. You can check out more of here work here.

A well-balanced affair saw the Gee-Gees' defence consistently get pressure on the quarterback and take the ball away, finishing with four sacks and two interceptions. Offensively, J-P Cimankinda once again eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark, finishing with 102 yards on 20 attempts. 

Throughout the first half, the Gee-Gees built a 13-0 lead on a one-yard rush by Cimankinda, followed by a rouge, a field goal, and a conceded safety. 

In the third quarter, McMaster would eventually get on the scoreboard on a nine-yard pass from Andreas Dueck to Jackson Cooling.

Ottawa eventually responded after Harnoor Dhaliwal intercepted Dueck to set up a 4-play, 37-yard drive for a Gee-Gees touchdown. Ben Maracle found Daniel Oladejo for the 17-yard major to extend the Ottawa lead to 20-7.

...

Maracle was 15-27 for 134 yards and a touchdown, while Willy-Pierre Dimbongi led the way receiving with 63 yards on 5 catches. 

Defensively, Dhaliwal registered seven tackles (five solo, four assists) and an interception, while Kevin Victome had the other takeaway. Riley Hildebrandt had 1.5 sacks in the win, while Emmanuel Aboagye-Gyan (one sack), Michael Pezzuto (one sack), Kevin Anderson (half sack) rounded out Gee-Gees that got to the quarterback. 

USports Players of the Week

Both uOttawa and Carleton had players honoured by the OUA earlier this week who then went on to be be named players of the week nationally by USports on August 31st.

Defensive Player of the Week – Shaiheem Charles-Brown, Carleton

A record-setting opening game performance for Carleton University defensive lineman Shaiheem Charles-Brown earns him the nod as U SPORTS Defensive Player of the Week.

The senior Psychology student from Montreal made himself at home in the McMaster backfield, recording a school-record four sacks in the contest. The final sack of Marauders quarterback Andreas Dueck came late in the fourth period forcing McMaster into a late-game charge third and long situation that resulted in an interception as Carleton held on for a 24-18 victory.

Charles-Brown was in REDBLACKS training camp this past spring. This is a good start to ensuring that he gets another shot with someone in 2023. 

Special Teams Player of the Week – Campbell Fair, Ottawa

Veteran kicker Campbell Fair accounted for 13 of his team’s 19 points, including the winning field goal with seven ticks remaining in regulation time as the Ottawa Gee-Gees defeated Windsor 19-16 en route to earning the U SPORTS Football special teams player of the week award.

The fourth-year Arts student from Carrying Place, Ont. was four of six in field goal attempts including a pair from beyond 40-yards as he established his longest field goal in his career connecting from 46 yards in the second quarter. He would add 234 yards on six punts to his game totals.  

August 27th, 2022: uOttawa 19 @ Windsor 16

The game summary below is from geegees.ca. A fuller version of it can be found here.

The scoring summary is copied from the OUA's website while the image of J.P. Cimankinda is from the U. of O.'s Instagram account. They credit Windsor's Kevin Jerrold for it. 

On Saturday, the Gee-Gees football opened their season with a 19-16 win over the Windsor Lancers in Windsor. After making the longest football road trip in the OUA, the Gee-Gees will return to Ottawa with a 1-0 record.

Ottawa opened the scoring with quarterback Ben Maracle scampering into the end zone on a two-yard touchdown run to take a 7-0 lead mid-way through the first quarter.

The Gee-Gees extended their lead with seven minutes remaining in the second quarter on a 42-yard field goal from Campbell Fair. 

The script flipped shortly afterwards for the Gee-Gees when Maracle exited the game with an injury and Matt Mahler took over.

An attempted dump-off pass by Mahler fell right into the hands of Windsor defender Liam Hoskins, who returned it 71 yards for a touchdown. Fair responded with his second field goal of the night, this time from 46 yards to give the Gee-Gees a 13-7 lead.

After the half, the Lancers added a touchdown of their own, along with a conceded safety by Ottawa, Windsor claimed a 16-13 lead. Fair would again be called on to tie the game and converted a third attempt from 30 yards out. 

In the end, Fair drilled a 38-yarder through the middle of the uprights with seven seconds left on the clock to break the stalemate and hand Ottawa the win.

"Anytime you win the game on a kick, you go wild," said Fair. "After a long drive, you're tired, it's hard to keep your mind on the game, but we managed to do it and it worked out well for us." 

 

Key contributions on the Ottawa offence came from J-P Cimankinda, who rushed for 125 yards on 18 carries, as well as Daniel Oladejo, who had eight receptions for 79 yards. Mahler finished 13-23 for 118 yards, while Maracle was 5-7 for 69 yards.

Defensively, James Peter led the way with eight tackles and a forced fumble, while Marc Rondeau and Riley Hildebrandt had interceptions. Rondeau originally returned his interception for a touchdown until it was erased due to a penalty.

"It was one of those character-building wins," said Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "We learned the value of staying positive, we had a lot of adversity, but we responded. On the flipside there are a lot of things to still work on, so we'll break down the film and make some corrections." 

Aug 17th, 2022: "Taylor, Miller named coordinators as Gee-Gees football set staff for 2022"

With a mix of updates and new additions, the Ottawa staff continues to take shape under head coach Marcel Bellefeuille in his fifth overall season at the helm of the Garnet and Grey.

Headlining updates to the staff are Nathan Taylor and Brad Miller, who will be taking on new coordinator roles for the upcoming season.

Taylor, who joined Ottawa in 2016 has served in a variety of roles with the Gee-Gees, most recently holding the post of Special Teams Coordinator and Receivers Coach. This season, he will move to Offensive Coordinator while continuing to serve as positional coach with the receivers.

Miller joined the Ottawa staff as Linebackers Coach in 2021 with a long coaching resume at various levels including the NFL and CFL. For the upcoming season, Miller will take over as Special Teams Coordinator while still working positionally with the linebackers.

The pair join defensive coordinator Jean-Vincent Posy-Audette to round out the staff's trio of coordinators. 

Four familiar faces to the program will highlight the changes on the positional coaching front for the season.

Brock Flemming rejoins his alma mater to serve as Offensive Line Coach. A native of Gatineau, Flemming played college football at Colgate, before returning home to play two seasons with the Gee-Gees in the early 2000s. In 2002, he was named a First Team All-Canadian at tackle, before playing parts of two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes. Since, he founded the Canadian Football Institute in Ottawa.

Marco Dubé will take the post of Running Backs Coach for the 2022 season after serving for two seasons on the defensive side of the ball with the Gee-Gees. Along with his experience in Ottawa, Dubé has coached in CEGEP with Cégep de l'Outaouais and Cégep Beauce-Appalaches following his time playing at York and with Outaouais.

Vincent Campbell also returns to his alma mater to serve as the Quarterbacks Coach. Campbell played receiver and returned kicks for the Gee-Gees from 2012-14. Following his time at Ottawa, Campbell turned to coaching where he worked in the CFL with Saskatchewan (2022), Edmonton (2021), and Ottawa (2019), as well as in France and collegiately at Simon Fraser.

Alex Labonté will rejoin the Gee-Gees coaching staff for the season, after previously coaching with the team in 2019. Labonté played linebacker at Ottawa from 2011-14 and has served as Head Coach of the Cornwall Wildcats U18 team since 2020.

1990, Oct 13th: uOttawa 21 @ Carleton 34

What follows is another example of a game between Carleton and uOttawa which might have generated much more notoriety and recognition had it been played under the Panda game label.

Carleton broke a 19-game losing streak dating back to October 24th of 1987 with this victory against their chief rival.

That brought Carleton's record to 1-4. They would not win either of their remaining two games and would complete the season with a 1-6 record.

For that matter, they would not win a game again until the third game of the 1991 season when they beat...uOttawa by a score of 9-0.  They would lose their next 12 in a row until knocking off uOttawa once again in the second game of the 1993 season. 

In summary, after defeating Queen's 16-14 on October 10th, 1987, the Ravens would win only three game between that date and September 18th, 1993, and all three were against the University of Ottawa. Got to love rivalries!   

1994, Oct 15th: "Gee-Gees survive great scare from Ravens but just barely"

Not every meeting between the University of Ottawa and Carleton is a Panda game, but many of the non-Panda contests are noteworthy regardless. In reviewing results for either team, I often find that the non-Panda contest is the more entertaining of the two match-ups. 

Such was the case in 1994. Have yourself a read. The first image is of Chris Evraire getting past Scott Hogarth and the second is of Harry Von Hofwegen sacking quarterback Steve Clarke.  

2022 Drafts

This post will be updated frequently as information is made available.

1 (02) - OL Zack Pelehos - uOttawa

Graphic from Gee-Gees Football Twitter account 

cfl.ca: "The six-foot-six, 296-pound lineman was a 2021 OUA first-team selection...Pelehos played in all 370 of the GeeGees offensive plays in 2021 and was named the team’s MVP. He made his way to the CFL Draft via the Ontario Regional Combine.

As a freshman in 2018, Pelehos was an OUA second-team all-star, a member of the OUA all-rookie team and the team’s o-lineman of the year."

Ottawa Sports Pages article from December 2021.

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke: “Zack’s progression was evident through the combine, and what he brought to his program. He’s nasty, he’s going to be physical, and he brings the type of football we want to play.”

Redblacks Press Release: Pelehos starred at the 2022 Regional Combine. The 6’6 300lbs tackle finished first among offensive linemen in the 40-yard dash (5.34), three-cone drill (7.92), short shuttle (4.69), vertical jump (29.50in), and broad jump (8’ 9 ¾“), as well as tying for first place in the bench press (16 reps).

2 (11) - OL Cyrille Hogan-Saindon - Laval

Graphic from Laval Football Twitter account

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “Talking about our DNA, our physicality, there’s a big arrow up on (Hogan-Saindon). He’s a one-year starter. A lot of guys that come out of Laval and Montreal are a bit older because of the CGEP program, but he’s a little younger in age. He’ll take some time to develop, but he’s got huge upside. He’s extremely intelligent, an academic all-Canadian. He’ll come in and bring an edge to that position. To get him with that pick, we’re extremely excited.”

2 (20, Terr.) - LB Jesse Luketa - Penn State

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “You look at it and when you can get a player of that calibre with what you would maybe call an additional pick – we hope not to have that pick anymore in the future – but let’s take advantage of it. We looked at a couple other local kids. I think it’s important to acknowledge what Jesse’s doing for this community and football and to have him associated with the Redblacks brand and give hope and inspiration to our football community means a lot. I called Jesse right after and congratulated him. I said, ‘There aren’t too many guys that can say they were drafted twice in one week.’ He was jacked to be drafted by his hometown team. We talked about, ‘Hey, we don’t expect you here. We want you to make it as far as you can. But we want you to be an ambassador for not only the City of Ottawa, but our country and the sport we all love.’ ”

3 (22) - WR Keaton Bruggeling - Carleton 

Graphic from the Carleton Football Twitter account

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “You look at him and he’s 6-foot 3, 220 pounds. He’s got the body for this. You see the speed on the field when you watch his film. It’s still coming together for him. He took a big jump this season where he became more of your go-to guy. He’s still got some teaching to come along. Coach LaPolice and (receivers) coach (Alex) Suber, they’ll get him there. He’s guy who’s passionate about football. And he’s excited to get in our building as well.”

4 (31) - DB Daniel Valente - Western Ontario

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “He’s a guy that just kept rising and rising as we got through the draft process. It was always, ‘What about that Valente kid, what about that Valente kid?’ He was just a guy we kept talking about and we knew there was a certain point in the draft where it was like, ‘We’ve got to take this guy.’ ”

5 (40) - LB Woodly Appolon - Tuskegee

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “He started at Northern Illinois, and then made his way down (to Tuskegee) with his (twin) brother (Wesly). He’s something different. You don’t see 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5 225-pound guys, that type of size. You’re always looking for size and athleticism. And he brings it. It’s something we don’t have in that group right now. He’s not going to be here this year, he’s going back to school. But he seems genuinely excited for the opportunity and we’ll track him for the year.”

6 (49) - LB Subomi Oyesoro - Calgary

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “He’s definitely a special teams guy, but he has some potential which I don’t think he’s reached yet. (University of) Calgary went through a bit of a difficult season; usually they’ve been a powerhouse and they fell back a little. It’ll be exciting to see how he reacts to the pro camp and what he learns from that. But in terms of athleticism, he’s a body type we’re looking for. We thought we were a little lacking in that.”

7 (58) - SB Connor Ross - St. Francis Xavier

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “Connor is a fullback but he’s also got some long-snapping skills. When we looked at our roster, we obviously have L.P. (Louis-Philippe Bourassa) who is great at what he does, but Maxime (Latour) got picked up by Toronto late last year and we thought we were a little light there. He’ll likely get a chance to go back to school. (Special teams co-ordinator) Jim Daley’s (at St. FX) and he’s a great special teams coach.”

8 (67) - RB Luca Perrier - Laval

Redblacks GM Shawn Burke (to the Ottawa Sun): “When we looked at special teams rankings, he just kept rising. He plays big — 210, 5-foot 11, and comes from a winning program. We do have two great special teamers as Canadians at running back – Gilly (Brendan Gillanders) and Jackson Bennett. Over the course of a season, you’re always going to have some ups and downs injury-wise and I believe (Perrier) gives us a chance that if he was sitting there available and ready to play, we wouldn’t see a huge fall off.”

Earlier in the day, Ottawa selected the following players in the global draft. 

OTTAWA - The Ottawa REDBLACKS made three picks during today’s 2022 CFL Global Draft, selecting offensive lineman Hector Zepeda (Round 1), defensive back Edris Jean-Alphonse (Round 2), and kicker Gabriel Ballinas (Round 3).

Zepada, 24, hails from Ensenada, Baja California, and was the only Mexican of the 13 international prospects to be selected into the 2022 NFL International Player Pathway program. The 6’4 290lbs offensive lineman spent his college career with Tecnólogico de Monterrey.

Graphic from mexfba IG account

Jean-Alphonse, 25, is a product of the Laval Rouge et Or. Born in Bobigny, France, the defensive back impressed at the CFL Global Combine, where he recorded the fastest 40-yard dash time (4.55), fastest short shuttle time (4.18), and placed fifth in the broad jump (9’ 11/12”).

Ballinas, 23, played his college football at Albany State, where he earned All-Conference First Team kicker/punter honours, and was also named HBCU All American, as well as HBCU Special Teams Player of the Year. Ballinas is a native of Guadalupe, Mexico.

The Redblacks did well in this draft last year with the selection of linebacker Tyron Vrede from the Netherlands. He was third on the team with 10 special teams tackles and added another five defensively. 

Sept. 7th, 2008: "Sacobie Racks Up Record in Rout"

2008 Gee-Gees results are being added and since a significant record was set in the second game of the season, I wanted to dedicate a post specific to it. 

Nov 18th, 2000: uOttawa 20, McMaster 15 (Churchill Bowl)

Playoff game summaries for the 2000 National Champion Gee-Gees have been added to their page but because this Churchill Bowl summary was awkwardly displayed, I'm putting it into a post to link to from that page. 

Fattening the Panda

The results of the Panda Game, the annual rivalry game between Carleton University and uOttawa, were all tabulated some time ago on a page bearing that very name. Most entries now include at least a partial game summary as well.

So now that the basics are down, the goal moving forward is to provide greater detail surrounding those contests including the antics involving its coveted prize, Pedro the Panda. 

Starting at the beginning seemed to make sense. I tracked down what appears to be the first mention of Pedro in the Ottawa Citizen from October 4th, 1955. 

Sure enough, Pedro was stolen two days later. It took all of two days for a tradition of mascot-based shenanigans to begin.

I knew I'd found a picture of a couple of Carleton players posing with Pedro following this game so he had either been recovered or replaced in short order. In fact, he parachuted in some time during the fourth quarter. 

So a pretty eventful debut for the city's favourite stuffed (at the time) bear.

I'll continue looking for details of his adventures over the decades in which he was particularly active. For now, in addition to the articles above, a more detailed summary for the 1955 contest was added at the bottom of the Panda Game page. 

November 8th, 1975: Toronto 07 @ uOttawa 14

Last month, the summary of the first playoff game the Gee-Gees won on the way to the 1975 National Championship was added as a post. We do the same now for the OQIFC East Championship game against Toronto.