Prince George was well represented at the 11th annual CIS East-West Bowl as two former high school players, Jordan Botel and Brandon Deschamps, cracked the rosters to showcase their talent.
Botel played for the College Heights Cougars before joining Mount Allison while Deschamps spent his high school days with the Kelly Road Roadrunners before heading south to play with the UBC Thunderbirds. Both running backs, Botel and Deschamps racked up 21 all-purpose yards each as Team West edged Team East 18-17. Deschamps had a one-yard run for a fourth-quarter touchdown for Team West. Botel played for Team East.
With the success Botel and Deschamps had with their respective CIS teams last season Prince George has waded into the conversation as a place that can produce good football talent. In order to continue to see the game grow in the north, Ryan Bellamy, head coach of the Prince George Northern Eagles football, knew he had to find a way to allow more players the opportunity to see there could be a future beyond high school for them in football.
In January, Bellamy contacted the B.C. Football Conference, the provincial branch of the Canadian Junior Football League, to inquire about a northern team joining the juvenile tier 2 spring league that was entering its second year of existence.
"We figured it was the next stepping stone for Prince George Minor Football to join in this league and hopefully develop and showcase the players that we have here," said Bellamy. "It's definitely an opportunity for these kids that have worked hard to get to this level."
The Northern Eagles have struggled to dress a full roster, playing with 23 or less players some weeks, but Bellamy said despite the growing pains of a 1-5 record it's been a fruitful season.
"We've had a good committed core group that's really been successful this year and the scores haven't been overly lopsided," said Bellamy. "We've been able to compete with these teams."
After playing their first five games on the road the Northern Eagles hosted their first tier 2 game Sunday at Masich Place Stadium, a 33-6 loss to the defending champion North Delta Longhorns.
"Overall the exposure of the fans getting to see the game in Prince George is going to help grow the sport," said Bellamy. "We're trying to show that football is growing quite large in the high school level with the expansion to junior varsity over the last couple of years."
Bellamy said that when high school players see Botel and Deschamps succeeding in the CIS it allows them to see if they put in the work they can play university football as well.
"Prince George is starting to showcase on the map as a football town and it's good for people to get out and see the next wave of talent that's coming out of Prince George," said Bellamy.
Gord Johnson, the first-year president of the B.C. Football Conference, made his first trip ever to Prince George for Sunday's game and he liked what he saw.
"The players have got fight in them," said Johnson, who served as vice president last season after spending four years with the V.I. Raiders. "They're low on numbers so a lot of the games they've just worn out by the second half, but when they get the numbers up, I think they'll compete."
The tier 2 league started in 2012 with four teams - North Delta, Richmond, Burnaby and Vancouver. After expanding to Prince George and South Delta this season, the teams in Vancouver and Burnaby pulled out of the league for 2013. Before Prince George was granted an expansion franchise, Johnson said there was a group from Kamloops considering entering the league.
Johnson said the objective of the tier 2 conference is to try and get more homegrown talent into the six-team tier 1 league that includes the Vancouver Island Raiders and Chilliwack Huskers.
"We looked at how many players we have from B.C. playing in the B.C. conference and how many aren't playing that have played either midget football or high school football and there's an awful lot of those players that aren't playing football," said Johnson.
He added that after high school a lot of football players are left with no where to continue their development, perhaps because they're unsure what they want to do with their future or they're a bit intimidated at the thought of suiting up against 22-year-old men in the tier 1 conference.
"By doing this it gives them an opportunity to reenter the sport and, hopefully with this running in the spring, it then allows them to gain the confidence and get get back involved to [possibly] move into tier 1 the following fall," said Johnson.
The tier 1 coaches will be at a combine at the B.C. Lions practice facility in Surrey during semifinal weekend where they'll be able to see the talent of the tier 2 players and talk with them about taking the next step in their football careers. The combine is June 1 with the tier 2 championship game scheduled for June 16.
The Northern Eagles have one more game to prepare for the semifinals when they host Richmond at Masich Place Stadium, Sunday at 11 a.m.
