Legal Application Filed to Send First-Place Football Team to CWOSSA Playoffs

Waterloo. November 3, 2010 – A legal application to compel the Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association (WCSSAA) to send a football team from this area to the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association (CWOSSA) playoffs was filed today by Tim Fedy on behalf of local football players and parents. Legal action was taken after discussions and negotiations with WCSSAA officials failed to produce a compromise.

“We want to ensure that from this point forward, Waterloo Region and District football players have the same opportunity to compete at a regional and provincial level, just like all the other secondary school athletes” said Mr. Fedy. “For the second year in a row, WCSSAA has failed to provide its football athletes with an opportunity to represent our area in regional playoffs and championships”.

The legal application, which was filed in Ontario Superior Court in Kitchener today, asks the court to require that WCSSAA send a football team from this area to the CWOSSA playoffs, now and in the future. Furthermore, it calls on the Waterloo Region and District School Board (WRDSB), the official supervisor of WCSSAA, to instruct WCSSAA to send local football teams to the CWOSSA playoffs from this point forward as they did up to 2008.

“We’ve been at this for quite some time but our requests to send the firstplace team to the CWOSSA playoffs have not come to fruition. We really didn’t want to take it this far but WCSSAA has left us with no alternative but to file this legal application” stated Mr. Fedy. “Furthermore, we felt it was our only course of action in order to protect all football programs since officials from WCSSAA threatened to remove District 8 football teams if we continued to pursue our request for a solution”.

According to the application, Mr. Fedy testified that this situation deprives football players of an opportunity to compete against other regional and provincial teams in playoffs and championships, just like every other WCSSAA athlete. The application states that all local secondary school athletes should be allowed to compete fairly and equally in order to reach their highest
potential.

In a recent local Internet poll, 75 per cent of respondents supported a motion to have WCSSAA send a team to the CWOSSA playoffs. “Obviously there is a groundswell of support for this action and we hope that the Board (WRDSB) and WCSSAA do the right thing for this year and years to come.”

In previous years, WCSSAA had sent football teams to CWOSSA playoffs but in 2009 changes were made to the football schedules making it almost impossible for WCSSAA teams to advance. According to the legal application, claims by WCSSAA that the scheduling changes were related to safety concerns have not been justified. In fact, WCSSAA’s current playoff schedule contravenes those safety concerns. Furthermore, if WCSSAA was working in good faith on behalf of all high school football athletes, corrections would have been made for the 2010 season to allow a WCSSAA football team to compete in the CWOSSA playoffs.

“Over the last two years, we have made numerous informal and formal requests to WCSSAA to change the schedule but unfortunately those requests have been continually rebuffed,” said Mr. Fedy. “Even as late as last Friday when we formally met with WCSSAA and proposed a resolution that effectively dealt with their safety concerns, we were told that they had no options as the CWOSSA playoffs have already been set.”

“It is our understanding that CWOSSA has not been given an opportunity to even consider an application from WCSSAA based on the resolution put forward by Mr. Fedy. Currently there is a playoff spot available for a WCSSAA representative because CWOSSA has a bye in their playoff format created by WCSSAA’s decision to withdraw with the CWOSSA playoffs.”

“From our perspective the answer is easy and simple: The Waterloo Region and District School Board should instruct WCSSAA to make an application immediately to CWOSSA, to send a team to the their CWOSSA playoffs, now and in the future” added Mr. Fedy. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Local football teams have previously enjoyed success at the regional and provincial levels as this area has been always been considered a strong hotbed of talented players. For example, Bluevale High School won several championships in recent years and once was an OFSAA runnerup. Also, Resurrection High School won the Western Bowl in 2008 and this year has been ranked as high as 11th in Canada by a popular football website, Canada Football Chat :).