Perhaps no other school in Canada can claim to have the tradition that Vancouver College's 81-year-old football program does. The Fighting Irish have produced some impressive grads, including 21 alumni who have played in the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup.
One of the player's to watch in the 2010 edition of the Irish is Christian Covington. For astute Canadian football fans the name likely rings a bell.
That's because Christian's father is Grover Covington, a Canadian Football Hall of Famer (inducted in 2000) who was a seven time All-Star during his career with Hamilton. And, when he retired he held the record for the most sacks in CFL history -- with 157.
Christian is beginning to show signs that he might be able to live up to his father's legacy. Last week against St. Thomas More Covington had seven tackles, a sack and a safety.
Vancouver College
The 2010 Irish should be every bit as competitive as the 2009 squad that got the Final Four before losing to WJ Mouat in the semi-finals.
The Irish have a second year quarterback leading the team on the field offensively in Jeff Tichelman. In 2009, Tichelman passed for over 1,000 yards with 10 touchdowns. He will be counted on to control the offence more in 2010 than last season.
On the defensive side of the ball the Irish are led by the aforementioned Covington. He'll be joined by seniors Charlie Thorpe and Daniel Kalinowski who combined with Covington an impressive 77 tackles and seven sacks in 2009.
New Westminster
Last week's homecoming game showed the Hyacks will be in tough in 2010. A young group with 20 different starters on both sides of the ball (11 on defence and nine on offence) will need to find a way to get their minds wrapped around the pressure of starting.
Regan Eberding looked swift last week when he was running the ball which seemed to be the only running scheme working against a smothering Terry Fox defence. Eberding also completed a great pass where he stood in the pocket and got hit hard but delivered a crisp pass down field.
Defensively, the Hyacks know that teams will try their best to keep the ball away from the Jamie Wandell-dominated side of the line. That means other players will need to step up their game.
The Call
It's unlikely Vancouver College will have enough breakdowns and mistakes to keep the Hyacks in this game. It's a case of one team being heavy on seniors and one team being heavy on young up-and-comers.
However, football is a game where you can never look past an opponent no matter how things may size up on paper. If for some reason the Irish don't take the Hyacks seriously this is a scrappy bunch of kids who have the athletic ability to make you pay.
