School football will look better this fall in Bas-Saint-Laurent / Gaspésie with a competition network in all three categories.
The director of the Student Sports Network in Eastern Quebec (RSEQ), Éric Plourde, does not hide his satisfaction to see this file have progressed positively.
“When I arrived in office two years ago, football was a little sluggish. We only had benjamin. There were teams in Rivière-du-Loup and Mont-Joli who played in Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches. I challenged myself to revive football here, because we have college. There was no reason we couldn’t restart it, ”he explains.
Work was done at Paul-Hubert school in Rimouski and at Matane high school last year to form teams. In Rimouski, Pierre-Antoine D’Astous has done and continues to do excellent work.
Pierre-Antoine D’Astous in the Sélects locker room at Paul-Hubert school (Photo journallesoir.ca- René Alary)
“We held a meeting with stakeholders in Matane last fall. I said what do we do? You stay there or you come back here, it takes a clear answer. The people around the table wanted a guarantee that there would be reliable leagues. It was also a question of the major juvenile which makes it possible to prevent dropping out of school. That’s what we’re going to do. We finally have our three leagues, ”he continues.
Five schools
Gaspé, Matane, Mont-Joli, Rimouski and Rivière-du-Loup participate in all categories. For the youngest (elementary 6 and secondary 1 and 2), it’s more of an initiation with series of games.
“In their case, we’re talking about a participatory formula promoting initiation to football in the form of a jamboree,” says Louis-David Goulet, RSEQ football coordinator in the region.
In the case of the cadet and juvenile, the five schools will play a schedule of six games per team, which will begin on the weekend of September 8-9-10. The top four in the standings will advance to the playoffs.
A team from Le Mistral school in Mont-Joli (Courtesy photo)
Involved in the football concentration program in Mont-Joli for several years, Goulet is not afraid of seeing his teams be too strong.
“We will have the answer this fall. The last year Mont-Joli played in the East, it hadn’t been that easy. We had won the final, something like 21-14 against Rimouski, and Matane had beaten us once in the year,” he recalls.
9 against 9
All games will be played under the rules of nine-man football. “It’s a new formula that is increasingly popular at the provincial level. It requires fewer players. With 18, you are able to play. The field is just a little narrower, at 50 yards instead of 65, which is the size of American football,” explains the coordinator.
2023-08-15 21:24:41
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