USA Football
TORONTO — By defeating the top-ranked United States 23-17 to win Gold at the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Under-19 Championship in Austin, Texas this July, Football Canada made quite a splash on the world football stage.
| Golden Boys |
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Team Canada shocked the Americans, en-route to winning the Gold at the IFAF Under-19 Championship in Austin, Texas. |
Just how big of a splash remains to be seen, but for Head Coach Noel Thorpe, it’s a major starting point.
“I did an interview with the Austin paper down there, and the next morning they came out and said ‘Canada’s known for maple syrup, hockey, and Justin Bieber’,” said Thorpe. “And I think winning proved to people on the States side that we’re not only known for those things, we’re also known as a country that has a long-standing tradition of football.”
If people outside of Canada didn’t believe this country is serious about its football before, the recent events may be changing their tune.
Ranked second overall going in, Canada opened the tournament with a 43-0 win over Sweden before knocking off Japan 33-24, earning a spot in the Gold Medal Game. There, they’d go up against an American team that had outscored its previous opponents 97-13, including a 70-7 rout of fifth-ranked Austria.
In the final on July 7, Canada jumped out to an early 10-0 lead on an Alexandre Huard 59-yard punt return touchdown, and after that never looked back as quarterback Will Finch threw for 145 yards and a touchdown on 7-12 passing.
Running back Mercer Timmins added 51 rushing yards and a touchdown on just seven carries, as Canada overcame what would’ve been considered improbable odds by most people to defeat the U.S. in their own football mecca of Austin, Texas.
One person that knew his team could win the whole time, though, was Thorpe – and it was that same mind-set he made sure to instill on his players from the very beginning.
“From day one, when the players landed and we had our 7:00 meeting that night, the 23rd of June, we set the table,” said Thorpe. “Our attitude going into this tournament, and I say it and I keep saying it, was to put a gold medal around our names, and we would do whatever it took to do that.”
For all of that to come together, a lot had to happen in a short amount of time.
First, Thorpe had to get a support staff in place that would provide geographical representation across Canada, as well as ample experience with football across the border. One of those coaches was former CFL receiver Kamau Peterson, who on top of plenty of Canadian football experience also spent time playing in the States in college.
“I knew he would be a great addition to our staff, the players would really see the value in Kamau Peterson not only because he just recently retired and can really be a mentor for them, but he was a great communicator,” said Thorpe. “I knew him as a player and I knew that he was really an extension of the coaching staff as a player.”
Once the coaching staff was in place, selection camps started across the country starting on March 3, with more than 400 athletes participating and vying for a spot on the team. As soon as camps ended in Quebec on March 18, the evaluation process would then begin as Thorpe and his staff had to select a 45-man roster with 10 reserves. 
Then of course there’s the issue of funding, something the players played a big role in when costs and fees associated with the program were higher than usual.
“The players did so much fundraising and there was a lot of creativity to help subsidize the costs for the program,” said Thorpe. “I found it pretty ingenious, we were selling cupcakes, and that was kind of our motto – ‘do whatever it takes’, through training camp or whatever it was to get there, they were going to do whatever it took to get there.”
Thorpe hopes Canada’s breakthrough at the Under-19 Championship will lead to progress in funding down the road.
“For me the goal is to be funded on a level where junior hockey is,” said Thorpe. “Because when junior hockey started, that program was a very fledgling program as well – there wasn’t the same interest, there wasn’t the same funding dollars that went into that – but what happened was it generated a lot of popularity and once it did that, then the national governing bodies got on board and started funding it, as well as sponsorships.”
“Once you start getting the sponsors on board, then all of a sudden the money starts flowing,” he added. “I think they see that now – I think they can see the recognition that this win and this tournament has had for the country and for the program, and it’s going to be a lot easier to gain sponsorship now.”
What’s clear in all this is that Canada’s gold medal win over the U.S. means more than just winning a championship – it means taking the next step internationally. For Thorpe, meanwhile, it’s given him a chance to put his footprint on Football Canada in a big way.
“We knew we could compete with the best and win with the best, we had no doubt in our ability – we just had to have an opportunity to prove that,” said Thorpe. “Obviously it was a huge win for our country and it was a huge win for our players. I think people now can recognize, not only in Canada but across the world because it was an international event, that teams can compete with the Americans given the right circumstances.”
