The revived Carleton Ravens football program is well underway in its rebuilding efforts, and head coach Steve Sumarah has been anything but idle since his appointment.
“Last week I was through North Bay, Sudbury, [Sault Ste. Marie], and Toronto,” Sumarah said. “This upcoming weekend, there’s a big combine out East. Every day it’s just trying to meet more people and hit more schools in the Ottawa area and just get the name out there.”
Old Crows Football Inc., the Ravens football alumni program, named Sumarah head coach of the new Ravens football team last month. Before joining the Ravens, Sumarah served 13 seasons with the Saint Mary’s Huskies, where he won two Vanier Cups as offensive co-ordinator and led the team to another cup appearance as head coach in 2007.
Saint Mary’s dismissed Sumarah in December 2011, which came as a surprise to many given his success with the team.
With all that behind him, Sumarah said his focus has now shifted to setting the Ravens’ program up for success. And that starts on offence.
“We want a star quarterback and offensive line play,” Sumarah said. “From there, we can build everything else. Everything else can be a heck of a lot easier when you take care of those two components.”
This is a formula Sumarah followed at Saint Mary’s, and it worked for him there. Last season, the Huskies were ranked third in the country with an average of 37 points per game.
As for his coaching staff, Sumarah said the team will likely be ready to accept applications this week.
“I’ve had lots and lots of inquiries,” Sumarah said. “We’re just getting ready right now to advertise it. I’m hoping that by the middle of this upcoming week the applications will open and we’ll get some. Once the co-ordinators are hired, then we’ll start to fill in the rest of the staff.”
However, recruiting is still far from where it will be in upcoming years, he said.
“Right now, we’re just selling a concept,” Sumarah said. “The minute that first piece of concrete gets laid, and the new locker room is built, and the stadium is going, I think it’s going to go on wheels. I really do. I think people are just going to jump all over this. As the summer rolls through, and the summer football starts, and the high schools for next year start, I think we’re going to be one of the definite schools of choice.”
For the team’s inaugural season in 2013-2014, Sumarah was sure to make no sweeping promises of success. Instead, he said he’s aiming for one or two wins. An important goal for him, however, is to achieve something that will resonate widely with Ravens fans.
“Beating [the University of Ottawa] is going to be a huge milestone,” Sumarah said. “Once we get that, as I’ve been saying, we win the town. That’s important, make sure everybody in Ottawa — all the top guys in Ottawa — know that this is the place to be.”
Besides showing elite Ottawa football players that Carleton is a winning school, Sumarah said he knows there’s another aspect to beating Carleton’s cross-town rival.
“You want the people on the Carleton campus to walk through town going, ‘Yup, we beat ya.’ That’s an important step, for sure.”
The revived program has a lot to live up to, with a Ravens men’s basketball team that has won seven of the past nine CIS national championships.
Although Sumarah said the two sports are markedly different, it’s something he thinks the Carleton football program is capable of accomplishing.
“It’ll take a couple years,” Sumarah said. “But honestly, if I didn’t see us doing that, I wouldn’t have taken the job. I believe that they’ve got it figured out here, and I think the school wants it. When people see the new facilities that are going to be built and all those things surrounding the infrastructure of this program, they’re going to say, ‘Wow, why wouldn’t that program be here?’”
