By Douglas Mann-Foster
Douglas is a student at Northern Secondary School in Toronto and is completing a co-op placement in the Toronto Argonauts’ Communications Department.
Most Canadian football fans think of the weekend as a sacred time. It’s the best part of the week, when your chips and pop intake is higher than normal, and most of the time you’re sitting on your couch yelling profanities at your television set while cheering for your home team. But at my school, Northern Secondary, the weekend is a time to relax. Friday is like the weekend at my school, but nobody’s sitting on any couches. They’re sitting on the bleachers by the back field, ready to watch their Red Knights go do battle.
From the second you walk into school on a Friday morning, you can tell that something is different. Whether it’s the players wearing their spiffy dress shirts and ties or students in the front hall selling tickets for the game and yelling incentives as you walk by like, “You get to miss the afternoon.” Even if you’re not a player, or even a fan of the game, you come out to support your Red Knights.
There is, and always will be, that feeling of family at school. Students are brought together with the idea of crushing a rival school. Whether it’s North Toronto or Leaside, all of the students band together against their common foe. When backup QB Michael Tassone was asked to describe the feeling of playing in front of his home crowd on a Friday afternoon, he thought long and hard for the proper way to describe it. “I get goose bumps.” he said, “It’s a feeling that you can never fully appreciate until you walk out of the dressing room and onto that field with the bleachers full of your friends cheering you on. You just want to do everything you can to beat the other team.”
The fans, however, only get to see the finished product: The team out on the field flying around, knocking people over and running through others. But as a player taking a year off for an injury, I know that you win the game with the work you put in the week before the game, and the actual game is the fun part. The Red Knights practice daily, sometimes twice a day, after school until their season is over. This takes a serious toll on players, but they know they must pay their debts to get the best possible results, and they are more than willing to do that to win the Metro Bowl.
On this particular day, Northern is buzzing with anticipation of the events that will transpire this afternoon. Northern is playing Central Tech at home, and it’s a buyout, which means students can buy a ticket to miss the afternoon and watch the game – so you knows it’s going to be a loud game. Fans have supreme confidence in Northern, “We’re going to win 35-0. They aren’t going to score once on our defence all game. Watch, you’ll see,” says an on looking fan. The sudden outburst of noise and cheering signals the arrival of the players on to the field.
Normally, the players would be going crazy and dancing around as they get pumped up for the game. Not these players. They slowly walk out, single file and silent, led by team captains Grant McAdams and Peter Forte. This is how they walk out every time and it never changes. It’s a tradition at Northern, started many years ago by the great Northern football coach Clarke Pulford. Why should they change it? It seems to be working quite well. Northern improved to 3-0 on the season, all games being won handily and only giving up 7 points on defence (the other 7 off of a kick return).
The Red Knights didn’t win 35-0 as the optimistic fan predicted, but they did win 38-7. QB Kyle Stenhouse threw for 2 touchdown (TD) passes, one to TE Jeff McDonald on a deep fly route late in the first half. He threw another to standout WR James Fannais. Fannais also scored a rushing TD on an end-around to the speedster, while RB Nick Gannis scored on a 6 yard lunge. The few Central fans that were in attendance were quieted rather quickly by RB Devante O’Connor on the first play of the game. He took the handoff, broke a tackle and bounced outside for a long rushing TD. That was the last time we heard chirping from their side of the stands.
The mob of red jerseys and outstretched arms with helmets in hand at the centre of the field signaled the victory. Northern Football assistant Dale Callendar spoke to the feeling of being involved in these games: “It is an experience that you don’t forget quickly. The whole school is so involved. It’s not just a football game…it’s a clash of schools. I feel special to be involved in such a wonderful event.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. It truly is something special to see students and teachers alike brought together by the idea of sport and competition. If you’re interested in coming out and supporting the team, we would love to see you in the stands.