Down, set, hut.
The backfield is in motion and Prince George football has taken a quantum leap with Friday’s announcement that the Prince George Kodiaks will join the B.C. Football Conference in 2022 as the province’s seventh junior football franchise.
Headed by Keon Raymond, a two-time Grey Cup champion with the Calgary Stampeders, who will take on the dual role as Kodiaks head coach and director of football operations, the Kodiaks have a year to gather an 80-player roster to compete in the BCFC using Masich Place Stadium as their home field starting in August 2022.
“This is something special, the time and work and effort that’s been put in to this community and to us joining the BCFC for us to have a junior football team here,” said Raymond, addressing the crowd of about 500 drawn to the Masich Place Stadium stands Friday morning. “This is huge and I’m so excited to be part of it and to take this thing further and bringing home championships.
“My core principles, I’ve always been a man of faith, family and football. I want to make sure our Number 1 thing is we dedicate to raise young men, that’s the most important part. When I come out here on this field I expect the best out of my team. I expect discipline, I expect them to work hard and give the maximum effort and I’m expecting they do all the little things because that makes champions.”
The Kodiaks will join the Kamloops Broncos, Langley Rams, Valley (Chilliwack) Huskers, Okanagan Sun, Vancouver Island (Nanaimo) Raiders and Westshore (Langford) Rebels next season to form a seven-team B.C. Junior Football Conference. The BCJFC is part of the Canadian Junior Football League and its teams compete for the Canadian Bowl national championship along with the six-team Ontario Junior Football Conference and six-team Prairie Junior Football Conference, which will add the Lethbridge Vipers as an expansion franchise in 2022.
The Prince George team will attract players from all over Canada and the Kodiaks also plan on utilizing graduates of the B.C. High School Football Association’s Northern Conference teams in Prince George and Vanderhoof to continually stock their talent pool. Players aged 19-22 are eligible to play junior football in a four-month season that runs from August-November. The CJFL is a development league for the CFL and university teams in U Sports.
“You’ve got to always produce and I think being able to get kids, whether they’re from Saskatchewan or Alberta, wanting to come up here and play for me would be a huge help in recruiting,” said Raymond. “We’ve got 80 kids to put on the field here and I’d like a lot of them to be from Prince George and these northern communities.”
Kodiaks president Craig Briere says having two post-secondary schools, University of Northern B.C. and the College of New Caledonia, should help the team attract players and the Kodiaks plan to take an active role helping them find jobs that will keep them on the city.
“If you look at the junior football programs that are successful across Canada they take the approach of developing the person through the sport of football and at the end of the day the game is that vehicle,” said Briere, who has worked nearly three years on the junior project. “Our emphasis is making sure our players have to opportunity to continue to play football and not have to leave home. They will have the opportunity here to play the game they love and more importantly develop as young men and give back to our community.
“This team isn’t just for Prince George, this team is for the north. We want kids playing from Williams Lake to Fort Nelson, from Prince Rupert to McBride. At the end of the day we want 80 players to come from northern B.C.”
The locally-owned not-for-profit club will operate on an annual budget of between $350,000 and $400,000. Season memberships will go on sale this fall and the team will be selling shares and sponsorship opportunities program for individuals and local businesses through the team’s five-year founders. Kodiaks players will be eligible for scholarships and financial assistance.
“This is about football, from little kids all the way up,” said BCFC president Tyler McLaren. “Keon clearly knows the game and the people and he shared Craig’s vision and the league’s vison when it comes to the all-in athlete, it’s about developing people. Keon’s track record with his playing and who he is as a person, the city of Prince George and the Kodiaks are lucky to have a guy like that. His networking will be a huge asset.
“His ability to just know what players go through and what coaching need to get done, he knows the specifics of how to run a good organization and he can take from his playing days and bring that here.”
Raymond is a devout Christian and he his wife of 17 years, Bianca, have four children – 18-year-old Keon Jr., a college student in Kansas; Dashaun, 16; Ramael, 14; and Gabrielle, 10. They plan to arrive in the city in early August.
Raymond’s full-time coaching role with the team is a rarity in Canadian junior football and his profile as a two-time CFL all-star defensive back lends instant credibility to the Kodiaks franchise which will help attract junior-aged players. The 38-year-old Missouri native has been based in Calgary the past 10 years, where he spearheaded development of the 7-on-7 Football Association of Canada. He retired as a player in 2017 and remains well-connected with CFL teams. He plans to utilize his pro contacts to help put on skill development sessions for players and coaches to stimulate grassroots interest in the game.
Playing for the junior Kodiaks is high on the list of ambitions for 15-year-old Ryder Stoughton, a member of the U-16 team who plays high school football at College Heights.
“It’s exciting to know that you don’t have to move away from your family to play football at a high level,” said Stoughton. “We have the building blocks here now and it’s nice to see. I think more people will be signing up for high school football. It will be really good for everyone.”
As host of the 2022 B.C. Summer Games, the city spent $3.5 million on renovations to Masich Place Stadium to install field turf and a new scoreboard and upgrade the lighting/sound system. It will allow the Kodiaks to create an entertaining fan event for each of their five home games each season. Games will be played on Saturday nights and the Kodiaks will utilize the full-sized Canadian field dimensions at Masich playing Canadian rules. A Kodiaks cheer squad will also be recruited.
Briere played five seasons junior seasons with the Regina Rams from 1993-97 before going on to university football at UBC and he knows the city is in for a treat when the Kodiaks start playing next year. He thinks there are enough football fans in the region to attract crowds as big as 5,000 for home games.
“Junior football is exciting football, it’s action-packed and more importantly it’s an event,” said Briere. “When you come to a Kodiaks game it’s not just the football side of things. We’ve got plans for concessions and food trucks and beer and cheerleaders, it’s the full-meal deal.
“I firmly believe we will be a cornerstone in the junior football league. We will have packed stands and all the things that make a football game enjoyable to watch. I know the people of the north and Prince George and I believe they will support us 100 per cent.”
The Kodiaks host their first fundraiser on Aug. 6 when they team up with the CFL Players Association to host a golf tournament at Aberdeen Glen Golf Course.
