What should have been a quiet bye week was made interesting by the Westshore Rebels, nothing like a mid-season coaching change to keep the BCFC top of mind. They say any news is good news, but I’m sure the Rebels organization would beg to differ right now.

Let’s get back to on field topics with the first Monday Musings of September.

No team starts the season with the plan of a coaching change half way through, it’s obviously not the perfect recipe for success. Still, if you surveyed the other 5 coaches in the conference they would likely tell you that with Shane Beatty as head coach the Westshore Rebels are a more dangerous team now than they were a week ago.

Rumours out of Westshore have Victoria native Ashton Mackinnon returning to the fold this week. He played both defensive line and quarterback for the Rebels in 2016, no word on where the club has him slotted in.

3…A look at the Valley Huskers roster says that’s how many players remain from the “pre-Bob Reist” era. 3…that’s how many more wins the Huskers have this year than they did the two seasons combined (2015/2016) before Reist arrived.

Coincidence?

Did 4 of the 6 BCFC teams limp into the Labour Day Break?

I’d suggest yes as perhaps only the tied for first place Valley Huskers and VI Raiders enjoyed the week off feeling good about themselves all around, besides the usual head coach’s dissection of the finer points of course.

The Kamloops Broncos, while they put up a better effort against the Huskers, still lost to a team they went into the season planning to beat. The Langley Rams are sitting at 1-3, no way did they see that record in their crystal ball before the season started. The Okanagan Sun have no reason to feel over confident heading into their second game against the Langley Rams with the offense underperforming the way it is. And of course, in Westshore, they are coming off a fired/resigned head coach, player suspensions and a blowout loss to the team they hate to lose to most. Until proven otherwise one can argue that’s a soap opera as much as a football team.

I ruffled some feathers in the OFC a few weeks back when in a Musings I questioned the conference media and marketing efforts out there. I honestly didn’t think of my comment as an insult, rather an observation born out of concern.

I think I’m one of the few people out west who truly realizes just how critical a competitive and marketable Ontario Football Conference is to all of us. The OFC left before, and just like when a married couple separates…if they do it once it’s more likely to happen again and ultimately turn into a divorce. We have to work together by sharing information about what we do to promote and sell our brand to keep the OFC as part of our family.

We can’t afford to lose the OFC. Period…we can’t. And yes, I do believe the conference and teams should build their brand like junior hockey leagues do, leaving it to the CJFL isn’t nearly enough.

For clarification, my criticism in that column was the travelling of an OFC rep to BCFC to see what we do out here, as I suggested that money would be better spent on allowing more players to play in the Canadian Bowl and/or national semi-finals.

When the OFC representative attended the Westshore Rebels game August 11th, he spoke to Rebels President Rob Lervold for all of 3 minutes and didn’t talk to Rebels marketing ace Tracy McAllister at all.

What exactly was the purpose of the trip if it didn’t include gleaning information about marketing and operations?

Game of the Week

Langley Rams head coach Matt Blokker told Dom Abassi in an interview just over a week ago that while losing to an opponent the first time wasn’t ideal, it was overcome by beating them in the second meeting. Well, the first of the Rams second meetings is up next as they face an Okanagan Sun club they fell to by a 21-13 score the first time they met.

Are the Rams out of the play-off hunt if they lose to the Sun and drop to 1-4? Absolutely not, but they would likely need help to get to the post season and that’s not a position any club likes to be in.

Add in the fact that the Sun will be looking to get it’s offence in gear in its home opener and this is the game of the week.

Monday Musings is for opinion purposes only and does not reflect the opinions of the BCFC or its member teams. If you have something you would like discussed text Blake Roberts 250-212-2888