Oakville Titans Football returns for 2011

Oakville Minor Football Association is a not-for-profit community football club that was founded in September 2008 by a trio of parents and coaches who had a vision.

The vision was to get Oakville football players and coaches back into Oakville, playing for their hometown, developing Oakville high school football and providing a safe and fun environment for all kids to play football within Oakville.

With the endorsement of the honourable Rob Burton, Mayor of Oakville, we were accepted into SCOFL and built the first not-for-profit football organization in Oakville in 15 years. The House League and Rep teams got the chance to begin spring 2009 as the mighty Oakville Titans.

The organization had a good first registration year putting two rep football teams, and three house league teams on the field.

The Junior Varsity Team won the SCOFL Championship in 2009, taking the title from their Burlington neighbours for the first time in years, demonstrating the immense wealth of local talent in Oakville.

Registration numbers doubled in year two as Oakville parents and players began to realize the value of keeping the talent in Oakville and reinvesting in their hometown.

The players wanted to play with their friends from various schools.

Once again, the JV team won their division but lost a nail biter to the Toronto Junior Argos.

To keep the development of football alive and well, the OMFA started a flag football program and grew to three rep football teams and four house league teams plus the eight flag football teams.

One other bonus – two Oakville high school teams fought for the Halton championship this year and with the help of some Oakville Titan players on both sides a great game was played at McMaster. Loyola brought home the championship, for the first time in years.

We also received our first Trillium Grant in 2010 for equipment and have received Town of Oakville Grants in support of coaching certification and training. We’ve now grown to a board of 10 Directors with 30+ members and 75 coaches, all of whom give of their valuable time and expertise on a volunteer basis to Oakville Minor Football. When Mayor Rob Burton told us in 2008 he could see us expanding to over 1500 children by five years, we all thought he was a little optimistic, as usual, he was bang on.

The 2011 season has just started outside, and this year for the first time we had to start a wait list for all three rep programs and our flag program has grown beyond our expectations, we want to see over 1000 kids playing Flag over the next 5 years in Oakville. We are very excited for the players for our third season, the teams look even stronger as more and more parents, coaches and player realize the value of a local football organization.

As we look ahead to 2012 and beyond Oakville Minor Football and the Oakville Titans will expand to include Varsity (17-19 year olds) next spring. Our flag program will be outnumbering our tackle program for the first time and we are hoping to start a girl’s flag football league. Of course this will take a lot of help from our overworked volunteers, but the parents of Oakville are an amazing bunch, willing to step in and help and take on new projects were they can see a benefit to the children and community of Oakville. It’s exciting times for football in Oakville!