Clarke Park – The Bellerose Bulldogs were docked three wins on the eve of Friday's playoff because of two ineligible players on the senior football team.
According to Metro Edmonton High School Athletic Association policy, in an event of an ineligible player participating, the team for whom the individual competed shall forfeit all matches in which that person has participated while ineligible.
The Bulldogs appealed the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association ruling Friday afternoon but were unsuccessful.
As a result, the final Carr division one standings were updated, with the Bulldogs going from 5-2 and a share of second place to 2-5 for sixth out of eight teams.
Instead of lining up in Friday's opening playoff against the Austin O'Brian Crusaders, who the Bulldogs defeated 24-14 in league play, Bellerose squared-off against the Harry Ainlay Titans on Monday and lost 15-0.
The Titans initially had a first round bye at 5-2 – they overpowered the Bulldogs 23-6 in the second-last game before the playoffs – but because of the revised standings the Salisbury Sabres went from 5-2 to 6-1 and received the bye instead, which forced the Titans to play Monday instead of Thursday's semifinal against the winner of the Bellerose/AOB match-up.
Head coach Chad Hill called the mix-up the lowest point of his 10-year coaching career at Bellerose. Hill stressed it wasn't the case of ringers or star players being ineligible but two players who combined for less than 20 plays. One played six-man football and the other was new to football.
Either way, rules were not followed and the Bulldogs paid the price.
"Teenagers should not have to worry about stuff like this and this is what really tears me up inside," Hill said.
A detailed letter from Bellerose principal Larry Dick dated Friday to parents or guardians of the Bulldogs' players was posted on the Bulldogs Football website at www.bulldogsfootball.ca and it ended with the following sentence: "I believe the sanctions applied to be extreme and punitive given the situation was the result of the failing of the adults around them."
Dick accepted responsibility for the events that transpired.
"The breach of rules is clear. The errors lie in the hands of the adults involved. Rules were misinterpreted causing avoidable delays. This was a case of broken lines of communication and busy people making assumptions that were not valid," Dick said in the letter. "I believe there was no intent to subvert the rules to gain advantage."
The issue revolves around two players who transferred to Bellerose from Saskatchewan after the start of the school year. Because the two individuals didn't play football in Saskatchewan but wanted to play football for the Bulldogs, there was no need for transfer forms according to the interpretation of the ASAA regulations by Bellerose officials. But upon further review on Sept. 26, when longtime Bellerose athletic director Sue Leighton sought an interpretation from the ASAA, eligibility applications were then submitted.
Norma Smith, sports co-ordinator for the metro Edmonton league, reaffirmed that, "Any players transferring into a school have to establish their eligibility and that is done through the transfer form with the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association, if not to metro," she explained. "When (Bellerose) did file the proper documents ASAA looked at it as they do all transfers, denied them and that's when obviously they're not eligible. They never were eligible.
"ASAA determined that they were ineligible to participate. Now metro follows ASAA policy so as soon as that happens then our policy kicks in where if you play ineligible players you lose the games that they participate in."
Smith added: "We stress at every coach's meeting to everybody to get their transfer forms in," she said. "I know there was a little bit of confusion as to whether these kids needed the transfer forms because they came from out of province … but they've been deemed ineligible so where do we go from here. It's unfortunate. Nobody likes this to happen."
Game on
Despite the hullaballoo within the Bellerose football fraternity and the negativity surrounding the program and the school, warranted or not, the Bulldogs still had a game to play and Hill was proud of how the players responded.
"They showed a lot of maturity in how they handled this last week and they came out focused. I couldn't ask them to respond any better than what they did. I thought they handled it with a lot of maturity and they came out focused and ready to go tonight," Hill said after emerging from an emotional, post-game team debriefing after Monday's playoff. "The loss is not because of a lack of effort on our part and it's not a matter of our boys being distracted. We came up short but we gave it all we had and I credit Harry Ainlay for winning the game."
It looked grim when the Bulldogs officially stepped onto the field with 30 seconds left in the pre-game warm-up because of travel delays from St. Albert to Clarke Park. They were given about seven minutes to work up a sweat before the referees swung into action to get the game going.
The fired-up Bulldogs played the Titans tough but trailed by eight points at halftime.
"We definitely came out with a chip on our shoulder. We were all pumped up," said Seth Waselenchuk, a pint-sized Grade 12 slotback and defensive back with a heart as big as a lion. "It was a game we looked forward to after everything that has happened with us when we had those wins taken away. We wanted to make things right and I think every single one of our guys went out there and gave everything they had. I don't think there were any regrets left out there. Ainlay put up a good fight and they deserved it. They managed to get the best of us."
During a scoreless opening quarter, quarterback Morgan Sherban elected to dump the ball off while tackled and the Titans returned the interception 18 yards to the Bellerose 32 as Tyler Feltis tracked down the runaway player. The Titans went on to attempt a 23-yard field goal but a snafu on the hold resulted in the Bulldogs gaining possession with 2:43 remaining in the quarter.
In the second quarter, a lengthy drive by the Titans ended with a three-yard TD run with 1:38 to go before halftime.
The Titans also added a single point off a missed field goal with 28 seconds on the clock.
"We had a really good first half. Things were working well for us, especially in the first quarter," said Waselenchuk, an active Bulldog on both sides of the ball while making tackles, taking handoffs and catching passes throughout the game.
In the third quarter, after Nick Cowan recovered his own punt at the Ainlay 35, the Bulldogs would settle for a 30-yard field goal attempt by Cowan but the ball clanked off the crossbar with 7:14 left until quarter time.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs punted on third and 14 from the Ainlay 43 and the Titans were pinned back at their 15. A couple of penalties allowed the Titans to move up to their 43 and a few plays later quarterback Cody Olson aired the ball out for Ronnie Oling to run under it for a 49-yard TD bomb with 9:55 to play.
After the Bulldogs recovered the Titans' short kick off at the Bellerose 50, Corbin Stewart pulled off a clutch third-down catch for six yards at the Ainlay 36. Two plays later Sherban was intercepted by Junior Henning and he returned the pick 28 yards to the Ainlay 53 to snuff out the last scoring threat of the game for the Bulldogs with 6:14 to play.
Henning was also a difficult Titan to stop running the ball out of the backfield while surpassing the 100-yard mark in the win.
"Harry Ainlay is a really physical team. That defence is very good. They're very talented across the board. They have speed in the right places and size and strength. They're definitely a formidable opponent," Hill said. "Defensively we kept up with them but unfortunately we couldn't come up with the big play on offence. We thought we had some things that were working but we couldn't connect all the time."
When asked if the Bulldogs would have fared better against AOB instead of the Titans, Hill replied: "I don't know how it would've gone but we knew eventually we had to go through Harry Ainlay anyways and we met them a little sooner than we had anticipated. It is what it is and we dealt with it."
Despite the off-field controversy it was arguably one of the best teams ever assembled in Bellerose football history. The Bulldogs, who have players from Sturgeon Composite High School in their lineup, were ranked as high as third in Tier I provincially.
"What a season. There were lots of ups and downs and lots of adversity and that's what makes me proud of our players," Hill said
Waselenchuk, 17, was sad to see the season end sooner than expected.
"It was a great year. It was a great group of guys with a lot of talent. There are some guys that can really go on and play at the next level," said the third-leading receiver in the Carr with 400 yards on 28 catches. "It was a lot of fun. I'm proud to be a Bulldog."
