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ODSS Bears open gridiron season

September 24, 2014   ·   0 Comments

The Orangeville District Secondary School Bears football team knew they were up against a tough opponent in game one of the 2014 season when the schedule pitted them against defending champion squad from John F. Ross CVI in Guelph on Thursday, September 18, at ODSS’s home field.

The team from Ross returned this season with many repeat players and a formidable offence that had a lot of speed.

The Bears have a young team this season with a lot of grade ten and 11 players on the team.

Fortunately, many have experience having played summer ball with the Orangeville Outlaws Club.

The Bears were up against a tough wall in the early going when Ross scored to make it a 28-0 game in the second quarter.

ODSS had some good success on defence in the second half, but still had some work to do in overcoming a strong Ross opposition.

The final score was 52-0.

“That was our first game, and of course there was a few things we did wrong,” Said Bears head coach Dirk Leers. “We’ve got a few things to work on. We’ve got quite a few kids who haven’t played football before, but they started to see what it’s all about. We only have five grade 12’s on the team. The rest are grade ten and 11.”

The ODSS team has 48 players on the squad which is a good turn-out at the high school level.

Leers said the fact that Orangeville has a summer football program will provide a good training ground for players wanting to enter at the collegiate level. The football program at ODSS is still at new program after being revived after a 50 year absence in the school’s athletic program.

“The Outlaws are now gaining more success in their program.” He said. “They had a good summer and that’s starting to benefit us. My hope for Orangeville is that we develop a football culture.”

There are eight players on the Bears team that have summer ball experience.

Despite the loss, Leers said the team did a good job.

“You can’t train kids to be fast or quick,” He said, “But on the whole I’m proud of them. We have a lot of kids who haven’t played football and are just learning it.”

Leers and his coaching staff have done an exceptional job with the team over the past few years with a coaching style that is tough, when needed, but at the same time offers a lot of encouragement and praises players who give a good effort on the field.

The Bears will have another opportunity to get in the ‘W’ column this Friday, (Sept. 26.) when they host Centennial Collegiate Vocational Institute in a home game on the main field at ODSS.

School spirit will take over the field as this game will be the big buy-out game where students can get out of class early to attend the game and support the team.

The kick-off is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

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