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High school team heading to Ireland to play football

Oak Park Raiders worked months on trip

By: Jeff Hamilton

Posted: 08/16/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press archives Coach Stuart Nixon (foreground) with players Ryan Patterson (left) and Jehad Harb

The Oak Park High School Raiders football team knows how to start a season in style.

Thirty-nine students are set to board a plane for Ireland next week to take part in the 2012 Global Ireland football tournament, Aug. 28 to Sept. 2, just weeks before the kickoff of the Winnipeg high school season.

"It feels great. It's nice that we'll finally be able to pull it off," head coach Stuart Nixon said Wednesday. "Most of the work's done now."

That work has included months of fundraising, including organizing a social, selling chocolates and collecting money through raffles and car washes.

"All we need to do now is to make sure we get the kids on the plane safely and make sure everyone is organized for all the activities they have for us," said Nixon, a phys-ed teacher at the school.

The Raiders will battle Villanova College, a school in King City near Toronto.

Preparation for the game will begin Thursday, when the team hits the field for their first practice of the summer. Each team has been given game film of their opposition to help construct a strategy.

"I've had a really good look at them and we've developed a really good game plan," said Nixon, who will continue to run practices every morning at 7:30 a.m. during the trip. "We're not taking our whole team; we're missing a couple real key guys. We'll look a little bit different while we're over there, but I like our chances based on the game film."

The trip won't just be about football. Other activities include a visit to the Guinness Brewery, a tour of the Croke Park Stadium, where they will take in a Gaelic football game, and a walk through the Lord Mayor's Residence. The highlight for many will come at the end, when all the teams will get a chance to watch the U.S. College Division I Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy at Aviva Stadium.

"I kind of look at (the trip) as separate from the season," said Nixon. "Yes, it's about a football game, but it's so much more. Every activity we do has a cultural aspect that will expose our kids to the Gaelic culture and the Irish history. There's a big educational part to this as well. It's quite an experience that our kids aren't likely to experience again."

Grade 12 student Aaron Culbertson is amazed by the opportunity.

"It's an incredible feeling," said Culbertson, 17, part of the Raiders' receiving corps. "I started playing football only last season and I never would have imagined that I'd be going to Ireland to play high school football.

"We're going across seas to Europe with the whole football team, with all our friends. I've never been to Europe and now I get to play football in a stadium that seats thousands, and that's probably the best part for me."

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 16, 2012 0

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