CIS FOOTBALL IN JUST 4 DAYS!

Only four days until the 2006 Canadian Interuniversity Sport football season kicks off. Can you sense that certain something in the air? Yes, it's a shrug of "Who cares?" reverberating across university campuses from sea to shining sea across this country. No matter. From time to time, Out of Left Field will have a post devoted to goings-on in Canadian university football.
So what if I could be making up and many people wouldn't know any differently? Yes, CIS football can often be amateurish, and no, it's not the NCAA, and yes, about a half-dozen of the 27 CIS football programs are at a sub-Division III level, but it's been part of yours truly's sporting consciousness from an early age, from the first time I went to a Queen's Golden Gaels game at Richardson Stadium and heard a chorus of the "Oil Thigh" after a touchdown. So indulge me already.

You've already been forewarned: I follow CIS football, even though this lowers me in the eyes of some people who apparently believe the only football worth commenting on is played south of the border on Sundays and Monday nights. This isn't meant to inform you that, hey, you're wrong to turn up your nose at it; if you can find something else to to occupy your Saturdays besides being distracted by wondering about games in places such as Kingston and Kitchener-Waterloo, so be it. This is just where I'm coming from.

So yes, there are plans for an Ontario conference preview on Friday, although there might not be time to do a proper write-up on the Atlantic, Canada West and Quebec conferences, although they're each outstanding in their own particular way.

Some goings-on from around the CIS:

• The Western Mustangs have an impressive rookie wide receiver, Anthony Adderley, who's from Barbados. Wish Mr. Adderley all the best, but do we need to explain to the local paper the connotations of calling a 20-year-old African-Caribbean man a "natural athlete" and running a headline that refers to him as "boy"? What year is it again?
• Laval had 11,000 fans for its exhibition game against the Saskatchewan Huskies last weekend. That's a season's worth of attendance for some teams. For others, it's a couple seasons' worth. By the way ... Mr. Dickens, I'd like you to meet Laval's backup quarterback, Cesar-Roberto Sanchez-Hernandez.
• Those aforementioned Golden Gaels are trying to project optimism after missing the playoffs the past two seasons, even after a 24-7 exhibition loss to Concordia last Sunday. Quarterback Danny Brannagan was the OUA rookie of the year last season, he has a veteran offensive line protecting him, and for a change the Gaels appear to have a better defence. Queen's also has a soft early schedule: University of Toronto, Guelph, Windsor, Waterloo. They should be 3-1 heading into a death-march second half of the season.
• Hometown Breakdown note: The pipeline of Simcoe Composite School grads to Montreal-area CIS football teams continues. Bryan Charleau, a SCS grad who's now a rookie safety for the Concordia Stingers, made an interception in that win over Queen's last Sunday. Another former Sabre, Curtis Merrick, plays on Concordia's offensive line. His brother Jim was an all-Canadian lineman at McGill a few years ago, while John MacDonald was an all-Canadian defensive tackle at McGill before playing a few years for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and then settling into a teaching job at SCS.
• Two other fledgling CIS footballers out of Norfolk County (my former beat at the Simcoe Reformer) to keep an eye on are Scott Puillandre, a linebacker who's committed to play for the Guelph Gryphons, and Jeremy Smith, a 300-lb. defensive lineman who's joined the Saint Mary's Huskies. Along with Charleau, Puillandre and Smith both played for Team Ontario in the 2005 Football Canada Cup under-19 tournament. Smith was a two-way lineman for the Metro Bowl champion Pickering Trojans last fall. Puillandre was actually an extra in the 2005 ESPN football movie Codebreakers.
• According to this, Norfolk's standout offensive player from last fall, running back Matt (Dinger) Socholotiuk, didn't do half-badly in an exhibition game against the Massillon Tigers from Ohio. (He's still playing for Waterford District High.)

Thanks for putting up with my CIS football fetish. That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.