Coach rides into sunset as three-time champion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/05/2003 (8427 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NOW that he’s retiring, Gill Bramwell is hoping that he’ll be able to try some new activities.

But one longtime routine the head football coach and math teacher at Oak Park High School will almost certainly still maintain is rising before dawn in order to deposit discarded roofing tiles and other material at the local garbage dump.

“I have a company, G & G Roofing, and I want to build a couple of houses after I retire, and take piano lessons. I’m also going to become involved with our alumni and past assistant coaches and do some fund-raising,” says Bramwell, 54, whose Raiders teams have won the Winnipeg High School Football League championship the past three years.

A roast for Bramwell will be held at Assiniboia Downs on June 23. A portion of all ticket sale proceeds will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society in memory of Bramwell’s wife, Gaye, who died of cancer last November, notes Cathy Penner, co-ordinator of the event.

“He and Roy Johnson, a former vice-principal at the school, were founders of the Oak Park football team,” says Penner, adding that her husband, Lindsay Penner, is the offensive line coach of the Raiders.

“I’m doing this because Gill and Gaye have been like family to us since we’ve known them. What we’re trying to do is create a bit of a bio on Gill and to get former alumni to come back (for the roast).”

According to the Penners’ son, Jason, Bramwell always put the players before himself.

“He’d do so much for you. He always pushed me to go one step further, either academically or athletically,” says the former Raiders lineman, who played fullback for the Winnipeg Rifles of the Prairie Junior Football Conference last season.

Bramwell, who’s been in the teaching profession for 30 years, says that he might have reconsidered his plan to retire if his wife was still alive.

“She was a very vibrant person and a big fan of the Oak Park Raiders. It was a real loss,” says the father of four adult children and a five-month-old grandson, Liam — a “potential Raider linebacker” in 16 years.

A native of Winnipeg, Bramwell grew up playing organized football in St. Vital. He graduated to the University of Manitoba Bisons, where he played middle linebacker for five years.

“I was an all-Canadian one year and a two-time Western Conference all-star,” says Bramwell, adding that he also played hockey and baseball before joining the Bisons.

Considered too small, he was never drafted by any team in the Canadian Football League.

“I wrote to all the teams, but couldn’t get a tryout. It was their loss,” asserts Bramwell.

Since he loved working with young people at the YMCA, Bramwell decided to go into the teaching profession. His first coaching job was at Grant Park High School in 1973.

“Gary Naylor, then coach of the Bisons, asked me to come as an assistant coach of the Bisons. I did that for three years,” says Bramwell.

From 1979 to ’89, he had the same job under former Bisons head coach Dennis Hrycaiko.

“It was a lot of work,” remarks Bramwell. “It’s high level competition with a lot of great athletes who are very motivated. It was a real challenge. Then Dennis resigned and I applied for the head coaching job.”

He made the short list, but no further.

Eventually he made it over to Oak Park, where he helped Johnson get a team organized.

“We had to get a proper field, equipment and coaching staff. I had some great help those first few years, including from Hrycaiko and others,” Bramwell emphasizes.

The Raiders were competitive that first year, but only posted a 1-6 record. In 1992, their record improved to 4-3-1.

“We’ve never looked back since then. In 1993, we went undefeated and won the championship,” says Bramwell, adding that his teams have won 32 straight league and playoff games since losing in the championship game in 1999.

He remarks that a successful team and its coach need three ingredients: A talented quarterback, a great defence and a very understanding wife.

“And unfortunately, in that order.”