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Local Sports

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It's Notre Dame at L-B in Week 1

Diamond Mine Direct
By MARK HEIMAN

STAFF WRITER

The field will be 100 yards long.

There will be just 11 players on the field per side at a time and there won't be multiple players in motion.

And each team will get the normal four downs to make a first down rather than three.

Although Canadian rules won't be in effect, Canada will be represented Thursday, August 21 at Liberty-Benton High School.

That evening the Eagles will host Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Liberty-Benton's football season opener. Notre Dame Catholic, which is located in Ajax, Ontario, an eastern suburb of Toronto, will make a quick stop in the Findlay area before the Cougars head to New Orleans to help residents rebuild from Hurricane Katrina. It will be the second journey to New Orleans for the team.

"We made our first trip in March of 2007," said Notre Dame coach Brian Hughes. "We went down and were part of the gutting process. We also donated $20,000 Canadian to churches there."

Hughes had heard first hand of the plight of Louisiana's residents when the parents of an Ajax family spoke at a Knights of Columbus meeting in Ajax. The couple was from the New Orleans area.

"We (Knights of Columbus) made a donation to them. I'm retired so I said to some of the guys, 'Let's go down and help.' Well that went over like a screen door in a submarine. But the kids were excited about it.

"That was the reason we went down last time. Now we are going down No.1 to help rebuild and secondly to play football."

The Cougars will play Archbishop Hannan, a New Orleans' school that was destroyed by Katrina, in a scrimmage contest the last week of August. Archbishop Hannan was forced to relocate its school 60 miles from New Orleans and nearly disbanded its football program.

The Cougars, who played Columbus Bishop Ready last season, will play a second game on their trip after they picked up the Liberty-Benton game. The game came about when L-B coach Tim Nichols inquired about Notre Dame stopping on its way south.

"I was at a clinic sitting next to the Bishop Ready coach," Nichols said. "I was telling him how we were having trouble finding a game. He brought this school up and I did not take it too seriously.

"About a month went by and we were not having too much success, so I got on the internet, got the name of the school and called up there.

"It just so happened that they were going to come through Findlay at that time."

Canadian secondary schools are not regulated as closely as schools in Ohio, especially in football, according to Hughes. That allows him to begin practicing earlier in the summer than most Canadian schools. The prep football season doesn't begin in Canada until the week of Sept. 1. So Hughes and the Cougars will play their two games in the United States before the rest of the Canadian schools begin their season.

"I'm an untypical coach. Whereas football is a religion down there, it is a pastime here. Teams in our league will play about six or seven games. We'll try to play 10," said Hughes, who estimated 70 people, including adults and female students, will be in the traveling party. "If the kids are going to play the game, I'll put some time into it."

Notre Dame is a school of 1,600 kids in grades 9-12, according to Hughes who was the "founding principal" of the school before his retirement. Therefore, should Liberty-Benton win the contest, the Eagles would pick up valuable computer playoff points, as Notre Dame's size is equal to a Division I school in Ohio.

"It is super on their part to go out of their way to play here," Nichols said. "We were running out of options for a game and I thought we were going to play just nine."

For now this will be the only trip for Notre Dame to Liberty-Benton. The Eagles will play Elida in their season-openers in 2009 and 2010.

Hughes mentioned that his team should arrive in Findlay around 3 p.m. the day of the game. L-B parents may put on a meal for his team that day and Eagles athletic director Dean Butler is setting up lodging for Notre Dame's traveling party.

But should L-B want to be a little more hospitable and play Canadian rules, Notre Dame may come back if the Eagles ever get into another pinch.

Plus, it's a lot of fun to watch multiple receivers go into motion.

Contact staff writer Mark Heiman at:

(419) 427-8405

Send an e-mail to Mark Heiman
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1 Comment

Mike Adams wrote:
cool
“ i think this whole set up is pretty cool for both schools ”
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:03:57 PM

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