Football team to finish season after coaches suspended

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This article was published 07/10/2014 (4376 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The North Winnipeg Nomads midget football team is getting a second chance and will back on the gridiron Friday night.

At an emotionally charged meeting Tuesday night between the Nomads’ board of directors and the team’s players and parents, Nomads president Jeffrey Bannon took over as head coach with a support staff collected from the staffs of other teams in the organization.

“Being the president, I am fully responsible, but the responsibility isn’t just on me. It’s on these gentlemen. They’ve been given a second chance,” Bannon said in an interview. “They’re very thankful and grateful and they understand. They are 15- to 17-year-old young men, they understand what they need to do and what’s at stake. The game is going to be played differently now. Respect and integrity is at the forefront. If we win, we win with class. If we lose, we lose with class. I can’t say enough about the parents, the range of emotions. But that’s what it’s about, it’s about our football family.”

The new coaching staff was put in place as a result of a series of events following an incident last Friday when a Nomads player shoved a referee during a regular-season game against the Greendell Falcons. The Midget Football League of Manitoba suspended that player indefinitely Sunday. The next day, the Nomads board suspended the entire midget team staff after a unanimous vote.

Last Friday’s game resumed after the official was shoved but Greendell coaching staff called the game before the end of the first half, after the team suffered numerous injuries and didn’t have enough players to continue. A Falcons player left the game with a concussion.

It’s been a tumultuous few days for the Nomads organization, which, in addition to the midget team, has six other programs from terminator (ages seven to eight) to major (ages 18 to 22).

Bannon said the board had advised parents and players at Tuesday’s meeting  it planned to cease the midget team’s operation for this season. But after “an outpouring of emotion and support from parents and players,” Bannon and several other volunteer coaches from within the organization stepped up to lead the team.

“I told them to take that second chance, go out and have fun, play the game the right way, and let’s win a championship,” Bannon said.

The midget Nomads will play their final regular-season game on Friday against the first-place Transcona Nationals.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca