When launching a new program, best to be prepared.
Those words might well adorn the walls of Laurentian Voyageurs' flag football coach Lance Patrie, the man entrusted with getting the new post-secondary offering off the ground.
With their entry to the Ontario Women’s Intercollegiate Football Association to start the 2024-2025 season approved last winter, Patrie and company opted to get a head start, putting together something of a makeshift squad that competed at the OWIFA spring tournament (and competed quite well, truth be told).
Multiple were the reasons for this lead-in initiative on the part of coaches and athletes alike.
“Our main motivation to start last spring was to get that experience playing the five v five game, just because its so different compared to the full Canadian-sized football field 7 v 7 game that we play in high-school in Sudbury,” noted Patrie. “We learned a lot.”
“During the summer, we were able to re-create our playbook and re-assess our defensive philosophies based on what we saw then. It also helped us in choosing the players for this fall, recognizing certain skills that would lend themselves to being more successful in the 5 v 5 game.”
“We realized that there is a ton of skill in our high-school 7 v 7 league that is not always apparent because certain players might not be showcased in their team’s offense.”
Some very talented teens might not be on the field at all.
During her time at Lasalle Secondary School, the fall sport schedule was spoken for Peyton Brear via her commitment to the well-established Lancers basketball program. Now in her second year of Criminology studies at L.U., Brear (who cracked the roster along with her twin sister, Hunter) is beginning to excel at a sport that she simply never imagined ever tackling.
“When I started university, I wasn’t going to do any sports because I wanted to concentrate on school,” said Brear. “I was worried about being too busy. But I ended up going to tryouts and I love it now.”
While Hunter came aboard this fall, Peyton was part of the spring experiment that formed the basis of roughly half of the current 14-player roster. “I definitely feel a lot more confident in myself going into this season just having practiced and played and stuff like that,” said Brear.
With more than 50% of the team coming from Sudbury and the bulk of that group all from different schools, the 20 year-old multi-sport athlete who competed in volleyball, cross-country, nordic ski and the like while attending Churchill Public School is now becoming far more acquainted with teammates who were long-time foes.
“It’s nice getting a chance to play with them,” said Brear. “You go from competing against them to getting to learn how they play. It’s different than when you are competing against them, just because we are all so competitive.”
Not the least bit a football fan growing up, Brear has taken to some very specific aspects of her role as a safety quite well. “I read the field and read the players and adjust to what the other team is doing – and I communicate to the other players on my team,” she said.
A native of Barrie, Jade Marriott played three years of flag (along with one year of rugby) while attending Bear Creek Secondary School, capping off her years of secondary schooling with a senior year at St Charles College in Sudbury.
And despite all of that background in the sport, there was an element of eye-opening taking pace as the Laurentian girls travelled to take part in the Niagara Invitational Tournament a few weeks ago.
“This definitely goes very quick,” said Marriott, a 21 year-old who studied at Cambrian College for three years and now moves on the Health Promotions program across town. “You don’t have a lot of time to fix any mistakes. You’re on the field, off the field and back on right away.”
In the condensed version that is five v five flag football, zone coverage seems like the go-to defensively, though it causes a great deal of teaching to be done in terms of over-loaded zones and such.
“I’ve learned a lot about watching your zone, being able to read the plays and knowing what to do if two people comes into the zone,” said Marriott. “Also, knowing that if nobody is around and they (opponents) are not cutting in to your zone, then you can go help other teammates.”
Posting a very respectable record of 2-3 as Kelly Clark and Maija Potvin scored three touchdowns apiece, coach Patrie continues to be impressed with what his team has shown to date, qualifying for the top tier playdowns in the 20-team loop that will see their top ten ultimately vying for a banner on Vanier Cup weekend in Kingston next month.
“We’re making plays on the ball,” said Patrie. “When the ball is in the air, we’re attacking the ball. And the execution of our plays is far beyond where I thought we would be at this point, which is great.”
“We have a ton of speed on our team and a lot of athleticism,” he added. “They’re really beginning to understand the 5 v 5 game, finding ways to get yourself open on offense or finding ways to close the gap on defense.”
The Voyageurs will head off to Welland in two weeks for Qualifier #1, a second round robin event set for a week or two later and will do so with a roster that also includes: Addison Elliott, Cayleigh Brulé, Chloé Rinaldi, Mya Farmer, Brooke Campeau, Claire McInroy, Katie Miglioranza, Sydney Coe and Zoe Rienguette.
