The Ontario Varsity Football League’s new relationship with the Gryphons got off to a super start when the league held its annual Prospects Game at Alumni Stadium.
“We wanted to change it to Guelph and we’ve made a deal with the Guelph Gryphons to have it for the next five years in Guelph,” OVFL president Marie Jackson said." We usually move it around. We had it at Laurier for a while, Toronto for a while and McMaster for a couple of years. We thought we’d promote it here and have it at Guelph for five years to promote this region of football."
Former Gryphon head coach, who now serves in an advisory role with the squad, approached the league about the possibility of hosting the one-day event that is used to select the team the league will field for an all-star game against the Quebec varsity league May 7 at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field.
“They’ve done a fantastic job for the Red/Black the last many, many years and Stu had approached me and we just decided it was a great idea to get (the Prospects Game) here as well,” OVFL commissioner Glenn Mills said. "It’s a great campus, great facilities and their staff is extremely helpful. We just thought it was another opportunity to expose some kids to another great opportunity.
“This is a great day for these young men to a great opportunity to play against some elite players at a great venue in front of some universities. It’s a one-day event so that’s nice.”
For Mills, head coach of the OVFL’s Essex Ravens, it was his second trip to Alumni Stadium in as many weekends as he is the head coach for Team Ontario’s under-17 squad that held its annual Red vs. Black weekend at the facility the previous weekend.
“A lot of these guys played in the Red/Black,” Mills said.
The league is to select 44 players for the game against Quebec and performances in the Prospects Game will be one of the top considerations. For the game, the players represented their conference with those from western Ontario playing on the Adam Conference squad and those from the east playing for the Wettges Conference.
“We have some really good talent, both sides from the whole province,” Jackson said. “We’ve got kids from Sault Ste. Marie that came down. Every team is represented for this.”
To get ready for the afternoon game, the players had a practice session in the morning with their respective Conference coaches — Simon Gichard of the Niagara Spears for the Adam Conference and Matt Kassner of Ottawa’s Myers Riders for the Wettges Conference — being told to keep things relatively simple.
“They put them through a practice and put in a basic offence and a basic defence so the kids could come out and compete,” Mills said. “We tried to have both coaches keep it the same so nobody had any advantages or anything.”
The Adam Conference had 10 coaches on its staff, two more than Wettges. That meant that many of the players got a chance to be coached by someone other than their own team’s coach.
“Anytime you get an opportunity to get coached by different coaches and exposed to different things, it’s always a great opportunity,” Mills said.
In the end, Wettges defeated Adam 35-28 in a close battle and all players were watched by the university scouts and coaches in attendance, including most of the Gryphon coaching staff..
“A lot of them are Grade 10s going into Grade 11 and some of them are Grade 9s going into Grade 10,” Mills said. “These are the next elite kids coming up through the system. The universities here get an eye on some of the kids coming through the system and that gives them some opportunities. That’s the most important thing, just get them some exposure.”
And the OVFL hopes that this year’s Prospects Game at Alumni Stadium is just a sign of things to come.
“It’s our first year here and it’s amazing,” Jackson said. “Hopefully the next four will be even better.”