I’m a football guy. I played the sport in high school and my couch has a permanent groove in the spot where I spend my weekends armchair quarterbacking. Although, admittedly, I was never big on Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football before, when I was applying to university I was surprised to see that Carleton hadn’t fielded a team since 1998. I knew there had to be a story, something tragic that robbed my future school of the greatest sport in the world. The reason? The team stank. Other than one year when it finished a respectable 5-3, the Ravens never finished with more than two wins in any season between 1991 and 1998. It even pitched a doughnut in 1992, going 0-7.
I don’t know what happened in the interim, but I don’t see a scenario where that will happen with the reborn Ravens. Carleton has done everything right in the lead-up to the revival of the football team next year. With head coach Steve Sumarah adding to an athletics program that already boasts a Dave Smart-led basketball team, Carleton has positioned itself to be known as a two-sport powerhouse in the CIS and one of the best Canadian sports schools.
That’s not insignificant: people love sports. For whatever reason, teams can unite, divide and define people. If a team wins, the people it represents are winners, too. Just look at our school. For the past decade, Carleton has benefited from arguably the greatest basketball dynasty in CIS history. After eight CIS championships, our school has become synonymous with the sport. That’s a step up from a few years before the run started, when people thought Carleton put the ‘K’ in quality. Before enrolling here, I spent a year at Thompson River University in Kamloops, B.C. Even I was surprised when my roommate used to talk about wishing he could go to Carleton. Why? Because he loves basketball and our team is head and shoulders above everyone else’s. I’m sure he’s not alone. Great sports teams are great marketing tools.
Although no one is predicting the football team will perform at the same level as the basketball team, it has a chance to be an even better ambassador for the school. No offence to basketball fans, but football is a big-time sport. The basketball team has won eight championships and hardly gets coverage anywhere but in the Charlatan. CIS football, on the other hand, is broadcast on national television.
The Ravens have done everything to make the most of the national spotlight from day one. First and foremost, an exceptional amount of money has been invested to make Carleton a destination for coaches. The team has assembled a great staff, even poaching a number of coaches from the cross-town rival University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. No one can question the staff’s ability: With the current Carleton coaches at the helm, U of O came within one minute of reaching the Vanier Cup in 2006 and had 8-0 and 7-1 regular seasons in 2007 and 2010. Without them, this year’s incarnation of the Gee-Gees —which had 10 returning captains — went 0-5 to start the year. According to the Score’s University Rush blog, Carleton offered J.P. Asselin more money to be its offensive co-ordinator than he was making as the Gee-Gees’ head coach. That’s not the norm in CIS sports. The ability to acquire — and hopefully keep — top-level coaches will be a clear advantage in a league where, according to the same blog, “coaches are hired and fired at a consistent rate across the nation.”
With the team’s first snap a year away, Carleton has already been able to attract a solid core of players. The recruits have already shown their skills, with 10 of them having already played together for a season on the Ottawa Sooners junior football team. While the team bowed out of the Ontario Football Conference playoffs with a 27-17 loss against the Hamilton Hurricanes this week, the future Ravens excelled. This is especially true for our blue-chip prospects Dexter Brown, Keith Graham and Jesse Mills, who should feel right at home having already played under Sumarah at Saint Mary’s University.
With its money, staff and recruits, Carleton’s football program is miles ahead of schedule. I have a feeling that by this time next year no one will ever laugh about Carleton putting the ‘K’ in quality ever again. Sumarah and the boys will be putting it in kick-ass instead.
— Pat Oakes,
first-year geography
