That‘s the overwhelming sentiment stemming from the Sun‘s fourth straight B.C. Football Conference playoff loss to the Vancouver Island Raiders – 25-16 on Oct. 24 in Nanaimo. Vancouver Island, the defending national champions, went on to defeat the Surrey Rams 50-14 in Saturday‘s BCFC championship game, and will now play host the Canadian Bowl in Nanaimo on Nov. 14.
The Raiders will face either the Prairie champion Edmonton Huskies or Ontario champion Ottawa Sooners.
As for the Sun, they are in next-season mode and have their work cut out for them this off-season. Okanagan is faced with the challenge of replacing 18 graduating players, including arguably its best on both sides of the ball – quarterback Derek Mann and MVP defensive back Paul Spencer.
“We have a bunch of spots to fill, and not only fill, but reinforce,” said Sun coach Pete McCall. “We need to improve our depth. We need to have a line up at all spots; that way guys are battling against each other. We might have fallen a little short on that this season. What we thought we‘d end up having and what we did have wasn‘t the same.”
To fill those holes and round out the roster, the Sun are turning to Howie Zaron, the former Chilliwack Huskers coach who was named Okanagan‘s director of recruiting last month.
“Howie‘s going to turn over some stones that we could not turn over,” Sun general manager Derrick Malinchuk said. “He‘s just got a gift of recruiting. “He‘s going to bring in some players that we just weren‘t able to touch for some reason. Howie‘s been a good recruiter (for Chilliwack) for the last four years, and he‘s definitely going to be an asset for us going forward. I see this team being really strong next year.”
Malinchuk, coming off his second season as GM, was formerly in charge of recruiting, but that was just one of many hats he wore on a day-to-day basis.
Now, with Zaron as chief scout and a scholarship program in place, the Sun should be able to compete with Vancouver Island, Surrey and Victoria for top prospects.
“It‘s something that Howie can focus 100 per cent of his time on,” said Malinchuk. “And he really has branched out our recruiting.
“He‘s working on a lot of coastal stuff, out in Vancouver, because there‘s a lot of good ball players out there. But he‘s already touched base in Alberta, in Saskatchewan, in Manitoba and he‘s got some stuff he‘s working on in Ontario.”
With Zaron‘s help, the Sun are hoping to reload rather than rebuild next season. They have 42 players eligible to return, and McCall is determined to be a contender again. Awaiting the arrival of his second child this month, football remains front and centre on McCall‘s mind.
“There‘s never any time to sleep totally with football . . . it‘s a 365-day job,” McCall said in the days following his squad‘s semifinal defeat. “I‘m going to have to get on the phones here right away and I‘m going to have to go watch some (high school) games. It‘s pretty much time to get back to work.” Top of Page
