Host with goals

Football New Brunswick announces provincial under-18 coaching staff

Football New Brunswick is proud to announce the coaching staff for the provincial under-18 team that will participate in 2013 Football Canada Cup next month in Moncton.

Gaetan Richard will serve as head coach.  This will be Richard’s third year with the provincial program. The current offensive line coach at Mount Allison University is entering his first year as head coach of the New Brunswick program and third as the offensive coordinator.

Offensive line coach Serge Bourque is entering his third season helping out with the provincial program. He is the current head coach of Odyssee high school in Moncton. Bourque played three years at Bishop’s University and was an All-Canadian offensive lineman in 2000.

Coaching the running backs in his first year with the provincial program is Aaron Harper. He is the current running backs and special teams coordinator at the University of New Brunswick. Harper is a former AUS All-Star offensive lineman and played five years with the Mounties.

Current Wide Receivers coach at Mount Allison University, Brandon Dubs is entering his first year as Special Teams Coordinator and Receivers coach with the provincial team.

Defensively, first year defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator Scott Brady will lead Team New Brunswick. He is in his third year with the program after coaching quarterbacks for the first two. Brady is currently entering his third season as defensive coordinator at Mount Allison University.

Entering his third year with the program, the Executive Director of Football New Brunswick, Pete Miller will be coaching the linebackers. The past two years he was the defensive coordinator of the U18 program. Pete is the current linebackers coach at Mount Allison.

Coaching the defensive line is Chris Hopkins who is entering his third season with the program. Hopkins was a defensive line coach at Mount Allison in 2012.

“We want to help develop our athletes in better football players but better people too,” said Richard of the coaching staff.  “We have been able to assemble a staff that is passionate about the game of football and development of our players.”

“We all understand how important the game of football is to these young men.”

After a 10-year hiatus from the Football Canada Cup, Team New Brunswick made its return back to the tournament in 2012.  From this return, football in New Brunswick has improved greatly.

“The high performance program that has been provided to the players has given them the opportunity to play in a competitive environment at a time of year where they typically have not had these opportunities,” said Richard. “One of the reasons for the camps was to emphasize the importance of being fundamentally sound.”

“This is something we continue to try and improve on every single day.”

Overall,  Team New Brunswick look forward to hosting the tournament in their home province as well as the long lasting legacy this tournament will have on their program.

“Playing with and against the best players in the province and playing on a national stage has helped build confidence in our athletes,” said Richard.  “We want to matriculate players to CIS and AUS programs,” said Richard, who emphasized the importance of building the foundation for players to continue playing at a higher level.

For the past six weeks over 140 players have been taking part in Football New Brunswick’s development camps across the province. Members of the provincial coaching staff and coaches from around the province helped to provide camps in Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton.

After the development camps, a roster of 60 players were chosen.

Those 60 players will participate in training camp this weekend at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. The roster will be pared down to 40 players.