With the return of football in 2013, the Ravens coaching staff used the Vanier Cup as a tool for promoting the program and recruiting athletes, according to head coach Steve Sumarah.
Sumarah, who won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship trophy in 2001 and 2002 as the offensive co-ordinator of the Saint Mary’s Huskies, was featured on the TSN panel during the game.
“I think it’s good for Carleton football because it gives us some face time,” Sumarah said.
It was not Sumarah’s first time appearing on TSN. He was a part of the CFL draft as well as the Vanier Cup panel last year, but it was his first time appearing as head coach of the Carleton Ravens.
“Carleton getting mentioned a few times throughout the telecast, that can only help with recruiting,” Sumarah said.
The Ravens coaching staff used the championship game to continue recruiting players. They had 15 potential recruits at the game, giving the athletes a taste of the biggest stage the CIS has to offer.
“I thought it was a great atmosphere, I thought the organizing committee did a great job,” said Ravens defensive co-ordinator Ryan Bechmanis. “It was a great football atmosphere in Toronto.”
The set up could not have been better to show the excitement of CIS football, as the 2012 Vanier Cup set a new CIS record for attendance. The Toronto Sun reported 37,098 fans on hand to watch Laval avenge their loss from one year ago.
According to a CIS press release, 910,000 viewers watched the TSN and RDS broadcast this year.
“The place was electric,” Sumarah said. “People were so excited by it, there was so much talk leading into the game.”
The previous attendance record was set at the first ever Vanier Cup in 1989 also in Toronto when 32,847 fans turned out for the CIS championship.
The 2011 Vanier Cup, which is casually referred to as the greatest game ever, saw McMaster defeating Laval 41-38 at BC Place Stadium.
This year, McMaster held a two point lead at halftime, but did not score a single point in the second half as Laval won convincingly by a score of 37-14.
“The rematch of the greatest game ever wasn’t much of a rematch,” Sumarah said. “Laval dominated.”
For now, the Vanier Cup is still a distant goal for a Ravens football team that is focused on recruiting players and building a football culture at Carleton.
“We need to set the culture at Carleton. We need to build from the ground up,” Bechmanis said. “Every program’s goal is to make it to the Vanier Cup, and we’re going to be no different.”
The game plan for next year is going to be hard work coupled with huge learning curves, according to Sumarah.
“We just want to go out and compete on every play, get better every single play,” Sumarah said. “We know our learning curve is going to be high.”
“We’re going to keep things simple off the bat and see what our guys can do,” Bechmanis said in agreement with Sumarah. “We want to learn something every day.”
Eventually the Ravens hope they will be competing in the Vanier Cup, but they also know that it will not be a fast progression to the top of the CIS.
“We need to take things at our own pace,” Bechmanis said. “We need to follow the plan we laid out.”
