A Kelowna youth football team is making its way to Edmonton today, with the goal of earning a second trip to Florida.
On Sunday, Alberta’s capital will play host to the 106th Grey Cup. Prior to that, though, scores of youth from across the nation will be competing in the 2018 CFL NFL Flag Footbal Championship on Friday. The winning team will win an all-expenses paid trip to the NFL’s youth flag football championship during Pro Bowl week in Orlando, Fla., in late January.
In Edmonton, the Kelowna Junior Sun will represent British Columbia after winning the provincial U12 championship earlier this year. The Junior Sun are comprised of 11 players, nine boys and two girls; three are 10 years old with the rest being 11 years old.
The Kelowna Junior Sun will play round-robin games against Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg.
“We put the team together through a team tryout in the spring,” said Junior Sun manager Richard Chell. From there, the squad had limited practices before competing in a provincial qualifying tournament in early June, where it placed second, losing 6-0 to West Vancouver in the final.
At the provincial championship in Surrey at the end of June, the Junior Sun started the tournament by tying West Vancouver 6-6, then losing to Cloverdale by three touchdowns. Chell said after that, Kelowna didn’t lose another game and advanced to the final, where they beat Cloverdale by three touchdowns.
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That win earned the Junior Sun a paid trip to the national championship tournament in Edmonton, where they’ll play four round-robin games. In all, 10 teams will take part. The top two teams in each pool of five advance to the playoffs. The game, played on a 55-yard field, features five-on-five play, with a minimum of one boy and one girl on the field at all times. Each game lasts just 20 minutes.
The B.C. Lions sent Kelowna toques to wear while the Okanagan Sun gave the team track suits. Chell said the CFL is paying for their flight and hotel rooms, and that after the one-day tournament is over on Friday, all 10 teams will gather at the West Edmonton Mall for dinner and fun.
Other teams competing will be the Edmonton-Raymond Comets; the Calgary Cobras; the Saskatchewan Bomb Squad; the Winnipeg Tuesday Night Tykes; the Hamilton Hammer; Toronto; the Ottawa Cougars; Montreal Flight School; and the Halifax Titans.
Chell said Kelowna will open the tournament against Edmonton. The Junior Sun will also play round-robin games against Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg. The tournament starts at 10:30 a.m. on Friday and ends at 4:30 p.m.
The Junior Sun were slated to leave Kelowna on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
“We have a solid 11 kids,” said Schell. “One kid went to this school and another to this school. Now they’re going to each other’s birthday parties, everything like that. It’s pretty cool.”
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