By Neil Stevens,
Canadian Press
TORONTO — Andrew Paopao listened to words of wisdom on the eve of the Vanier Cup game from a man who knows something about battling for football championships.
Leave it all on the field, his father undoubtedly was telling him. Joe Paopao has spent most of his 52 years in the sport. The Hawaiian came to Canada to quarterback the B.C. Lions in 1978 and played or coached in a variety of CFL cities up until last year when he was offensive co-ordinator of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was on the coaching staff at the University of Waterloo this autumn.
Andrew Paopao, who is 24 now and a defensive end for the Saint Mary’s Huskies, grew up with a football in his hands.
“I was in B.C. for a couple of years, Saskatchewan, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, San Francisco – I’ve been all over the world,” says Andrew Paopao.
“I got to watch all kinds of different players – animated players and some jerks.
“A lot of people yelled at my dad. A lot of people loved him. It’s all part of the game. It was really fun growing up around the CFL.”
Oceanside, Calif., has been the off-season home and, while Joe Paopao planned to be at the Vanier Cup game Friday night, other family members arranged to watch it via the Internet.
“I wish Waterloo had a better team so maybe we could have played them in this game,” said Andrew Paopao. “That would have been really fun.”
He played college football in California until grade problems forced him to look elsewhere. Saint Mary’s coach Steve Sumarah had taken part in training camps when Joe Paopao was coaching the Ottawa Renegades and heard that the son was looking to play in Canada. They talked, and Andrew Paopao moved to Halifax.
“It’s been great,” he says. “The people of Halifax are great.
“They’re really supportive. It’s a really neat town – a lot slower than the rest of Canada and California, but I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Some of the friendliest folks in Canada reside on the East Coast and they make a visitor feel welcome immediately.
“They’ll always say hi in the morning,” Andrew Paopao says. “Compared to California, it’s a world of difference.”
On the football field, he’s played on both sides of the ball.
“My older brother was a quarterback so I did a lot of quarterback drills with him,” explains the six-foot-two, 245-pound American. “I also had a chance to go to a couple of Division 1 schools to play centre.
“So I’m really familiar with offence and with defence. I just chose to hit quarterbacks instead of being one.” Sumarah and his staff didn’t allow their players to get too full of themselves after they upset No. 1 Laval in the national semifinals.
“This is the game we want to win, this was the Cup we wanted,” says Andrew Paopao. “That was a great win but to come here and lose would be horrible.” The Saint Mary’s defence has been menacing all season.
“We probably have the best secondary in Canada,” says Paopao. “We have one of the top D-lines and our interior guys are very strong.
“My other end, he’s a great pass rusher. Our linebackers hit anything that moves. And we all communicate very well.”
The Huskies planned to establish a running game early in the championship showdown. The Bisons would try to do the same. Andrew Paopao was ready, and there’d be a face familiar to Canadian football fans watching his every move from the Rogers Centre seats.
