Ravens head football coach Steve Sumarah has been selected as one of seven coaches tasked with leading Team Canada at the 2015 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) senior world championships in Sweden.
Previously, Sumarah was the quarterbacks and receivers coach for Team Canada at the 2011 IFAF world championships in Austria, where they received a silver medal after losing 50-7 to the United States.
“To have the chance to represent your country and to play in a world championship, it was an incredible experience,” he said about the 2011 world championships. “The coaches and the players and everything, it was just first-class.”
For the upcoming championships, which occur every four years, Sumarah will be taking on the role of running back coach, which he said will not be much different from his previous coaching jobs with the team.
When asked if he thought he’d ever be returning to coach at this level, Sumarah said he would not.
“Honestly, I just jumped at it,” he said.
Sumarah has been head coach at Carleton since 2013. In the 2014 season, he coached the Ravens to a 4-4 record, a radical improvement on their 0-8 record in last year’s inaugural campaign.
Prior to that, he spent eight seasons as the offensive coordinator for the football team at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, N.S. He was then promoted to head coach, a position he held for six seasons.
Ravens offensive coordinator Jean-Philippe Asselin said Sumarah brings a lot of energy and experience to his job as head coach for the Ravens. He added “the thing I enjoy the most is his dedication and passion for the work.”
Asselin also said Sumarah’s extensive experience with coaching football means that this position with Team Canada is a good fit.
“I think that he definitely has a great offensive mind,” Asselin said. “I think he’ll bring a lot of creativity on offence and I’m sure he’s going to help [Team Canada] a lot.”
Sumarah said there would be no conflict between his coaching duties for Team Canada and the Ravens.
“I think sometimes being involved in these things actually gives you a little bit more credence when you’re out there recruiting. People hear about these things and it can only help,” he said.
Team Canada will face stiff competition at the 2015 IFAF world championships, most notably the defending champions from the United States, who will be looking to add a third world championship title to their name.
“I think they’re very good . . . obviously the Americans have a bit of a stronghold on this, but if we can get to the gold medal game like we did in 2011, I think that’d be great,” he said. “It’s going to be tough to be honest with you . . . but you know you can only play with 11 on the field at a time so that’ll be our approach going in.”
This marks the second time Team Canada will be participating in the world championships, which were first held in 1999.
