The reborn Carleton Ravens football program is taking a page out of Ravens’ basketball coach Dave Smart’s playbook, as they have partnered up with a Canadian Junior Football League team to develop their players.
The Ottawa Sooners, who play at Keith Harris Stadium on Carleton’s campus, have developed a strong relationship with the new Ravens program since its inception. The relationship is similar to that between the men’s basketball team and the Ottawa Guardsmen, a local basketball club Smart co-founded in 1985 to develop young players from eastern Ontario.
Rob Raistrick, president of the Sooners, said the goal of the program is developing young players into competitive higher-level athletes, unlike many junior sports programs across Canada.
“Our goal coming into next year will be to hopefully get four or five NCAA scholarships and 15-20 players moving on to [Canadian Interuniversity Sport],” Raistrick said. “The more kids that move on, the more kids that want to come and play here. With some junior programs, they’re not about moving their kids on, they’re about success right away and keeping the players themselves. Ours is the kids moving up to the next level.”
The Sooners are no stranger to developing their players and having them move on to better places. Over the past three years, Alex Mateas, John Delahunt, Dillon Guy, Ryan Doull, and Eli Ankou all moved on from the Sooners program to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I schools.
This comes as no surprise, as the program pushes the limits to train these athletes so they can perform at their best.
“Our goal is to get players that can move up, learn the Carleton University systems and have a work ethic,” Raistrick said. “Our program, we try to have it like a CIS program, where the kids are practicing everyday getting ready for the weekend. It’s highly competitive training camps. And that’s what we’re trying to build as a program, just like a CIS program for them.”
The Guardsmen have been a reliable source of young basketball talent over the past decade. They had a hand in developing star players such as Aaron Doornekamp and Tyson Hinz, along with current Ravens Justin Shaver, Gavin Resch, and Kyle Smendziuk.
For Ravens football head coach Steve Sumarah, the success of the basketball program at Carleton is a something he wants to emulate.
“[Smart] has taken the bar, and he’s buried the bar,” said Sumarah. “It’s not even raised, it’s hidden somewhere in the clouds.”
“We want to have another program at this same level so fast,” Sumarah continued. “We’re going to work hard to try to get us there. I think [Smart] has really shown that the school is a draw across the country, and recruiting-wise, it’s a place that I think people are going to want to be.”
