Hamilton’s Bishop Ryan high school football team heads to OFSAA

The battle of the best senior high school football team in the Golden Horseshoe took place in Hamilton on Tuesday.

Bishop Ryan hosted Assumption Secondary where the winner will go onto compete in OFSAA — best in Ontario honours.

The team going on to compete for the best in Ontario is Bishop Ryan with a Final score 31 to 7.

Before the game, parents on both sides reminisced on their athletes’ journey to get here.

Jim Davies, Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School head football coach says the players have come a long way.

“I’ve been watching him since junior football at Assumption and they’ve only got as far as a certain point, “ said Davies. “And to watch them get to the finals is pretty significant.”

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Another parent beamed with pride at the success of Bishop Ryan’s football team making it to another championship after two years.

Davies says his team endured some challenges at the beginning of the school year. The team faced no turf on their field forcing him and his students to attend an offsite camp. The team also

endured nearly three weeks of practice at Mohawk Sports Complex.

“The key to me as I’ve emphasized throughout the year was the play of special teams,” Davies said. “We have won that element of the game in most games this year.”

Davies went on to tout his best returner Ben Kingston who returned a 110-yard field goal miss for a touchdown which flipped the game.

The head coach says his graduating students – Grade 13s have lead through example and know how important the game is.
“We’ve talked about familyhood and brotherhood– Football is a special thing,” Davies said. “These boys are going to have that for the rest of their lives which makes me very happy.”

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