Blue Bombers - 2025 Regular Season - Discussion Thread

[wbbfan]

11 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

You'd be surprised by the ego of youth football coaches/parents.

Same as any other sport in that age range up. 

[Arnold_Palmer]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

And I just checked, lost on the finals to the other league super team! Dakota!  

[rebusrankin]

6 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

And I just checked, lost on the finals to the other league super team! Dakota!  

If you're a good football player or a good athlete with potential and you live in LRSD, it seems you end up at Dakota. Whether they blatantly recruit, don't know.

[JuranBoldenRules]

22 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

If you're a good football player or a good athlete with potential and you live in LRSD, it seems you end up at Dakota. Whether they blatantly recruit, don't know.

Absolutely they do.  Everyone in the city with stable coaches does.  Rule is kids are locked in where they go to school for Grade 10 unless they move residence to a different catchment.  Otherwise if they change schools, have to sit out a year/go through an appeal process that rarely rules in favour of the athlete before they can play any sport at the new school.

Those top 3 Winnipeg schools in LRSD and PTSD (Dakota, OP, Vincent Massey) have more kids outside of catchment than inside on their football team.  By a lot.

Kids at schools without football can't transfer out after the start of their Grade 10 year either to play football at a new school.

Wade Miller is really pushing more of a co-op model to allow more schools to participate...which in MHSAA is only allowed for very small schools...and dilute the pool of players for Dakota, OP, Vincent Massey. 

WHSFL makes it's own rules through Winnipeg School Division so it is possible to do something different than MHSAA would say for other sports.  Manitoba is very weird in how our high school sports are structured and really discourage any hope of participating in a sport that doesn't exist at your school.....especially when basically all our team sports run the top programs through high schools, and outside of the city high schools are really the only way you can do anything but hockey.

All the rules slow down recruiting, but also encourage kids to go to the super schools for their sport rather than stay and build competitive programs in their area of the city.  Most other provinces have spring club leagues that take on that role and let kids play at closest available school to their home.

Edited 23 hours ago by JuranBoldenRules

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

That's not good, what's the point?

Domination.

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

So many forfeits in AAAA league last year.  The tiering model is so broken.  Forced every AAAA school up into top league because everyone was trying to avoid being in same league with OP, St Paul's, Dakota.  Nobody wants to lose by 70.

It was a lot better when the big schools didn't have JV teams but a top division team and a lower division team instead.  In that era when I played and then coached, never heard of a forfeit.  Now it's like 6 a season because teams literally get destroyed playing these monster South Winnipeg programs.

[ddanger]

A little off -topic but...Has anyone driven on Abinoji east and then tried to get onto Pembina going south towards the stadium?? If not, you're in for an adventure in frustration at all the construction awaiting you on Pembina. The Pembina bridge roadway is torn up, pylons everywhere, and several lanes are closed.

Thinking maybe the south Perimeter to avoid this?? construction east of the red river bridge and lane closures both directions.

[Booch]

4 minutes ago, ddanger said:

A little off -topic but...Has anyone driven on Abinoji east and then tried to get onto Pembina going south towards the stadium?? If not, you're in for an adventure in frustration at all the construction awaiting you on Pembina. The Pembina bridge roadway is torn up, pylons everywhere, and several lanes are closed.

Thinking maybe the south Perimeter to avoid this?? construction east of the red river bridge and lane closures both directions.

south perimeter is how I go there from Island Lakes...mo real issues that way other than the normal summer traffic