Saints return on opening day
By Kevin Gould - Cornwall Standard-Freeholder - September 13, 2011
kgould@standard-freeholder.com
A new season is all about new beginnings, and that's especially true for the St. Lawrence Saints.
The Saints will take to the field today, fielding a football team for the first time since 2005.
"It will be a big deal for our guys, and it is," said Morley Dulmage, one of three coaches on the Saints, along with Jamie Carr and Troy Vaillancourt.
St. Lawrence hosts the Cornwall Collegiate Raiders in an 11 a.m. junior contest. The only other Seaway High School Football League game of the day has the senior Raiders at St. Francis Xavier (Hammond).
It will be a raw group of Saints taking the field today.
"We're always optimistic, but only five of our guys have played before," said Dulmage.
"But everyone's been coming out for practice. We have about 25 kids who are really committed."
The numbers aren't ideal — as Dulmage says, "it makes running offence and defence in practice a challenge, that's for sure."
Still, football's back at the school, and that's a reason for optimism.
"We'll stay positive, finish the year, and learn, and be as competitive as possible," said Dulmage.
While the return of the Saints adds to the league numbers, there has been some subtraction as well. Tagwi will not field a junior team this season.
The Warriors will have a varsity squad however.
Faced with a similar situation at Glengarry District High School, the Gaels have decided to merge with Char-Lan District High School and Vankleek Hill.
"The league has agreed for us to merge," said GDHS principal Guy Lamarche.
"The only problem is, it's a little late in the game. We're still hoping to field two teams (junior and senior) but we won't know for sure about that until later this week."
Lamarche expects to hear back from Char-Lan and Vankleek Hill today or tomorrow about the number of kids who want to play in Glengarry, and the Gaels will make a decision on the viability of having two teams shortly thereafter.
"We'll definitely have a varsity team, and we're hoping we'll be able to also have a junior team," said Lamarche.
• Holy Trinity hosts Tagwi (1 p.m.) in senior action on Thursday, while St. Thomas Aquinas visits St. Joe's for a pair of games on Friday (11 a.m., 1 p.m.).