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Canada's a huge country - I wouldnt make sweeping generalizations for the whole country. Chances are, soccer popularity varies across Canada.
Soccer tends to be the most popular game that kids play while growing up, at least here in Vancouver. I remember growing up that every kid I knew played soccer and was on a soccer team. Half of the kids were on baseball/softball teams. Only a small fraction played hockey. Ditto for high school.
Saying this, while it's the number 1 sport for kids in elementary school and high school, it's not really a big spectator sport here. It's more popular amongst British, Italian, etc. expats.
TV coverage? Low.
Pro-level game attendance? Peanuts compared to hockey.
Robynator he's talking about American Football. As for info, I can only speak for BC.
I played HS football here and am from Vancouver. HS football is no where near the level of popularity in states (we played a couple American schools from Washington and they were 1A/2A teams).
There's about 20 or so 3A teams in all of BC, and 25-30 in 2A in all of BC. There's a 5 team league called Tier-2 which is for ****ty teams haha. Some schools (mostly private schools) have football as there main sport. HS football is growing in media over here, with it being published in a popular BC newspaper called "The Province", and some highlights in a popular BC newscast called "CTV". A big reason for this is because the coach for New Westminster is a person who works for TSN (Canada's ESPN), and CTV. So his ties to the media has grown the sport greatly.
It's also not as big because, well, coaches don't get paid at all here to coach. It's fully out of love for the game (I played last year, and came back to coach this year). No Boosters, and it's only growing recently, so there isn't much support.
Hockey is recreational, and there are no HS teams. However I can't say how many people play Hockey here, but it's fairly popular.
Pro Level - Our team here is the BC Lions, and we get crowds of around 25-40,000 depending on the game. It's not very big here. The Universities here that play are UBC and SFU, and they get a whopping average attendance of about 1500 people. I plan on heading down to Seattle alot more, to watch the Washington Huskies play... I went down for the game vs. USC last year, and there was 80,000 people there. It was amazing.
I wish football was as big as it is in the states. You can see the difference even in Washington. Imagining Texas, California, and all those southern states is beyond me.
Pro Level - Our team here is the BC Lions, and we get crowds of around 25-40,000 depending on the game. It's not very big here. The Universities here that play are UBC and SFU, and they get a whopping average attendance of about 1500 people. I plan on heading down to Seattle alot more, to watch the Washington Huskies play... I went down for the game vs. USC last year, and there was 80,000 people there. It was amazing.
We loyal Dawgs appreciate your support. If our team improves, it'll get a lot more exciting. If you need good recommendations on places to stay and eat in the U-District, PM me and I will hook you up. My wife and I have a fair bit of experience with that.
I'm curious how the difference in squad sizes is handled with cross-border games in high school. Does each team play the visitors' game (would seem like the proper way, out of respect to the guests)? (Wonder if Quebec's CEGEPs have Canadian football teams?) As I understand the Canadian game, the field's a little bigger, there are only three downs, and there are twelve on a side. That would make playbooking rather difficult. On a given play, everyone has an assignment. For us, that would leave us with an additional player who'd have to be instructed to do something useful. For Canadian teams, that would mean having to pull out a player whose assignment probably wasn't just thrown in for the fun of it, which could bust the play concept. On defense, you'd have to shift the zones around or something.
We loyal Dawgs appreciate your support. If our team improves, it'll get a lot more exciting. If you need good recommendations on places to stay and eat in the U-District, PM me and I will hook you up. My wife and I have a fair bit of experience with that.
I'm curious how the difference in squad sizes is handled with cross-border games in high school. Does each team play the visitors' game (would seem like the proper way, out of respect to the guests)? (Wonder if Quebec's CEGEPs have Canadian football teams?) As I understand the Canadian game, the field's a little bigger, there are only three downs, and there are twelve on a side. That would make playbooking rather difficult. On a given play, everyone has an assignment. For us, that would leave us with an additional player who'd have to be instructed to do something useful. For Canadian teams, that would mean having to pull out a player whose assignment probably wasn't just thrown in for the fun of it, which could bust the play concept. On defense, you'd have to shift the zones around or something.
Hey there, I'm a huge Husky fan. And I'll be sure to do that, I think the whole team next year will be down there for the LSU game. I gradded in 08, and coached the fall after. I won't be coaching again, but I'll likely head down to the game and meet them there. So I'll be sure to give you a PM
Our whole team went down in HS in my Senior year (we were supposed to go to the Ohio St game, but one of our coaches passed away, so we went for the USC game) I liked the Huskies when I started watching/playing football (I didn't know much about football then, but when I saw Isiah Stanback, it stuck) but when I saw the USC game and the experience, I fell in love. We were on the field too for pre-game and got to walk through the tunnel.
I think the Sarkisian hire was great, but I think he made a mistake in firing Gervais, even Tormey is gone so there's no one has recruiting ties to the state of Washington. But I'm sure after a while, he'll get everything organized. The HS Head coach here at my old school knew Gervais very well, and even spoke to him when he heard he had gotten fired.
In BC HS Football, we play 4 down football, American HS rules. Community leagues here play canadian rules, as well as everry other province (F*ck 3 down football haha) so there's no difference for us. The other provinces have trouble and we played an Alberta team and we ran the Wing-T. They never seen it before and every play was a TD almost. We played American rules against them.
Our 3A is probably equivilant to the skill level of 1A/2A teams in Washington. We played Nooksack Valley twice when I played, Charles Wright (Tacoma), and Washington HS during my 2 years at my school in season. We went to a couple team camps in my junior and senior summers. We played teams like Sedro-Woolley, Mt. Baker, West Seattle, Sequim, Lindbergh, etc.
Last year when I coached, we played a team from Oregon, and next year we play Meridian HS and Blaine HS (right across the Canadian border)
Not many people know this, but Jake Locker at Ferndale played one of the better schools in BC twice called Vancouver College in his Junior and Senior years. Both years they beat them around 42-7, and when Locker was a senior, Vancouver College was a Provincial 3A Finalist.
The transfer from American to Canadian rules in University is a bit tough. Running the ball is less frequent (which sucks, as you can see my name on this forum) and passing/kicking are huge in the Canadian game.
The field is alot wider. One time I was on punt team and when we kicked the ball away I had contain on the Punt Returner. I was on one of the sidelines and guaranteed contain. Turns out I was on the HS football line and the returner went right around me. I was embarrassed hahah.
Hey there, I'm a huge Husky fan. And I'll be sure to do that, I think the whole team next year will be down there for the LSU game. I gradded in 08, and coached the fall after. I won't be coaching again, but I'll likely head down to the game and meet them there. So I'll be sure to give you a PM.
Then you're going to like this: the motel we stay at is all suites. So for about US$100 a night, you can fit several people into a room, plus kitchen and refrigerator. The kitchen you probably wouldn't care about, but I don't know very many Canadians who would reject a convenient place to chill beer. The more people you are bringing, the better this place works out. If it happens to be a game my wife and I are also attending, we should definitely be in touch so we can buy you guys a round.
I'm really glad you had a great experience at my alma mater. We are proud of our school and we always want that to be reflected in a hospitable gameday experience, and that should go double when the visitors come from Canada. (I have had 99% great experiences traveling in western Canada.) We are also one of only two I-A schools where you can boat to the game--the men's and women's crews handle ferrying passengers from their boats to the dock, just below Husky Stadium.
I too questioned the Gervais sacking. I think the jury's still out on Sark, and I see why he canned Tormey and Hart, but Gervais had only been there one year and would have definitely impacted recruiting and continuity. Plus, he didn't coach under Ty long enough to absorb the cloud of mediocrity. However, on recruiting, two of the coaching hires thus far are former Cougs, so they are familiar with WA recruiting. Maybe they even know that the dry side of the mountains also has good players--Ty almost completely handed eastern WA over to WSU, UI and BSU.
Interesting about BC football; I didn't realize you played US rules. The Wing-T is very popular in our HS at all levels, but it requires some adjustments for players going to the collegiate level (quarterbacks especially, as you'd expect). Locker definitely had to adjust, as Ferndale was a Wing-T school. It is probably safe to assume that high school football in US life assumes a place similar to hockey in Canada--a game is a community event. I played for a B-11 team in my HS days and for three months of the year football was everything. Which Oregon team? Might have been one of the old A schools we used to beat up on: Wasco County, Sherman County, Portland Lutheran, Corbett.
I have watched some CFL when I was getting drunk in various Canadian bars, and I liked it. Fast-paced game, a lot of movement, kind of like hockey with downs. Do they throw a lot out of the backfield, screens and slants and swings? Since you've watched your share of US college football you've seen the spread offense go mainstream; would you compare it stylistically to the Canadian game?
As for Locker, he made a big impression out our way when Ferndale took on Prosser in the finals. Prosser is serious football country; you couldn't get elected dogcatcher there if you weren't visible at home games. They're a perennial powerhouse in their division. Anyway, Ferndale just beat Prosser like a rented mule, and evidently Jake pretty well had his way with them. One of Sark's top priorities must be to improve Locker's accuracy and not always use his running ability like a drug, as Lappano seemed to do.
Then you're going to like this: the motel we stay at is all suites. So for about US$100 a night, you can fit several people into a room, plus kitchen and refrigerator. The kitchen you probably wouldn't care about, but I don't know very many Canadians who would reject a convenient place to chill beer. The more people you are bringing, the better this place works out. If it happens to be a game my wife and I are also attending, we should definitely be in touch so we can buy you guys a round.
I'm really glad you had a great experience at my alma mater. We are proud of our school and we always want that to be reflected in a hospitable gameday experience, and that should go double when the visitors come from Canada. (I have had 99% great experiences traveling in western Canada.) We are also one of only two I-A schools where you can boat to the game--the men's and women's crews handle ferrying passengers from their boats to the dock, just below Husky Stadium.
I too questioned the Gervais sacking. I think the jury's still out on Sark, and I see why he canned Tormey and Hart, but Gervais had only been there one year and would have definitely impacted recruiting and continuity. Plus, he didn't coach under Ty long enough to absorb the cloud of mediocrity. However, on recruiting, two of the coaching hires thus far are former Cougs, so they are familiar with WA recruiting. Maybe they even know that the dry side of the mountains also has good players--Ty almost completely handed eastern WA over to WSU, UI and BSU.
Interesting about BC football; I didn't realize you played US rules. The Wing-T is very popular in our HS at all levels, but it requires some adjustments for players going to the collegiate level (quarterbacks especially, as you'd expect). Locker definitely had to adjust, as Ferndale was a Wing-T school. It is probably safe to assume that high school football in US life assumes a place similar to hockey in Canada--a game is a community event. I played for a B-11 team in my HS days and for three months of the year football was everything. Which Oregon team? Might have been one of the old A schools we used to beat up on: Wasco County, Sherman County, Portland Lutheran, Corbett.
I have watched some CFL when I was getting drunk in various Canadian bars, and I liked it. Fast-paced game, a lot of movement, kind of like hockey with downs. Do they throw a lot out of the backfield, screens and slants and swings? Since you've watched your share of US college football you've seen the spread offense go mainstream; would you compare it stylistically to the Canadian game?
As for Locker, he made a big impression out our way when Ferndale took on Prosser in the finals. Prosser is serious football country; you couldn't get elected dogcatcher there if you weren't visible at home games. They're a perennial powerhouse in their division. Anyway, Ferndale just beat Prosser like a rented mule, and evidently Jake pretty well had his way with them. One of Sark's top priorities must be to improve Locker's accuracy and not always use his running ability like a drug, as Lappano seemed to do.
Sweet, around where is this motel? Is it far from Husky Stadium? The team usually just takes a bus down from Vancouver to Seattle the day of, or stays overnight at the gym of the team they play.
The boat seems like a great idea, I assume though it's popular however.
I also thought that he shouldn't have been sacked because of Ty. He was too "now" to have any affiliating with that program. He's a well respected guy in the ranks of HS football in Washington, being from Skyline. He probably could have helped us get Jake Heaps! And yeah I guess those 2 hires could help, but remember.. they're coogs! Haha
Yeah it's always a good experience playing American schools. The school I played for is actually New Westminster, an outskirt city of Vancouver. Football is pretty big at the school, we usually get fans of 500-1000. And our homecoming games attract 1500+ (big for BC standards, not Americans haha). We emulate American HS football probably the best. They played Toledo HS, a 3A team in Oregon I believe.
No one here runs the Wing-T, we were the only team to run it effectively, and we only put it in for my senior year. All 3 of our backs, including me (I played WB and FB in our offense) ran for 1000+, no one ever knew who had the ball! Another team, who ran it also was quite effective. One of the players was a person recruited from Washington. His name was Boseko Lokombo, he played WR and HB in the Wing-T offense in his Sophmore year. He moved down to Oregon to get exposure for Pac-10 Schools, and was the best player in Oregon last year. He moved back up here. He turned down the Huskies, and now it's between Cal and Oregon.
When Ferndale played Vancouver College up here (kinda funny, they're jerseys are Purple and Gold) I managed to watch him play. He was a stud... but yeah it's hard for QBs in that offense.
As for Hockey, it's more of a big thing at the Pro level. But recreational hockey (no HS plays hockey), is not all that big. HS football in america is far more important than recreational hockey. Towns don't close down everything to watch the hockey game.
And Canadian football, it really depends. Some teams run the Zone Read outta gun. And your "hockey with downs" is fairly accurate. Swings and checkdown routes are common, but hardly ever thrown to. Since you can have up to 6 recievers, and most of the time 5, they will will have lots of crossing and deep routes. Slants I believe aren't all that common, because well, you only have 2 downs to get it, unless you elect to go on 3rd. Intermediate routes like digs and 10 yd outs are popular, as well as the deep ball. But slants are usually the check down routes. I would compare Canadian football to Texas Tech's spread offense, with an extra reciever and wider field. I can see Mike Leach reading this forum and looking for an interview up here
Well we are moving to USCs pro-style offense so he better get his accuracy down soon. I still hope they utilize his running ability a fair amount.
I couldn't attach a picture of us in the post, so I made my profile pic a picture of us at on the field at Husky Stadium. Click on my username and you should be able to see it.
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