By Martin Cleary,
Ottawa Citizen
The transition to the outdoor spring sports season is almost complete.
The baseball diamonds are full. High school fields are bursting with soccer, rugby and touch football games. The sound of a starter’s pistol means track and field meets are under way. And the competitive and house-league soccer players are anxious to break out of the indoor venues and hit the city fields sometime next week.
Often considered a summer-fall sport, football recently has added a third season — spring — to its competitive calendar.
Despite the lack of a Canadian Football League franchise for the second straight season, football is thriving throughout the city as teams stage tryout camps to select their players for the upcoming amateur and semi-pro seasons.
The Ontario Varsity Football League for varsity and junior varsity teams opens at the end of the month. The Myers Riders and Cumberland Panthers are in the middle of their three-week camps before starting their eight-game regular seasons May 26.
The Riders will welcome the Metro Toronto Wildcats to the Minto Sports Field at the Nepean Sportsplex for a junior varsity (bantam) game at 1 p.m. and a varsity (midget) match at 4 p.m., May 26. The Panthers’ junior varsity and varsity teams open in Newmarket against Markham Raiders.
After six years as head coach of the Riders’ junior varsity team, Dominic Arecchi moves to the varsity club in the same position. Max Palladino, who has been in the Myers’ organization for a decade, becomes the junior varsity head coach.
Ron Karam is the new head coach of the Cumberland varsity team.
Wayne Blakley returns as head coach of the junior varsity squad, which went 8-0 in 2006 before losing its first playoff game.
Player interest at all four camps has increased over previous years. About 90 players have attended junior varsity tryouts for the Panthers and 60 for the varsity team.
The Eastern Ontario under-17 football team will stage its final tryout camp June 3 in Kingston, where the coaching staff headed by Lee Barette will reduce the squad to 40 players.
About 110 players were identified after combines in Oshawa, Peterborough, Kingston and Ottawa. At the first tryout two weeks ago at the University of Ottawa Sports Complex, the team was trimmed to 50.
The regional team will play in the Football Canada Cup under-17 national championship July 7-13 in Lennoxville and Sherbrooke, Que. At the 2006 nationals, Eastern Ontario, 2-1, won the bronze medal.
The Ottawa Deacon Demons open training camp Tuesday at Ken Steele Park. They kick off their third Empire Football League season at the St. Lawrence Valley Trailblazers on July 14. The home opener is July 21 against the Scranton Eagles on the Minto Sports Field.
New head coach Jeff Pinck, the 2006 defensive co-ordinator, has signed 75 players for the semi-pro team. He plans to carry 45 players, who pay $200 for the 10-game season and don’t get a salary.
Shawn Harkes, an all-around key player for the Deacon Demons, will attend the camp. He was the team’s top running back in 2006, second in receptions, interceptions and kickoff returns, and was the punter.
