Picture – Coach John Ball is in the top row – third from the left. The House League team pictured is the Purple Colts team.
Up until 1998, the Huronia Stallions had only run a 19 and under Varsity team.
1999 would see the program launch a Junior Varsity team as well as a novel experiment: a house league for youth development. The initial house league program consisted of only two teams of youth 12 and under.
Over the years, the house league program gradually expanded and began feeding players to the Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. The results have been incredible. The House league today has over 220 players in 3 divisions with teams in both Orillia and Barrie. These divisions are Mustang (ages 8-9), Pony (ages 10-11), and Colts (ages 12-14).
The spirit of the Stallions house league is to develop the basic fundamentals of the game in a non-competitive atmosphere. Games are played without the score being kept and players are allowed to play a variety of positions. The goal is to foster team oriented values and a love of the game.
The Varsity team began seeing players arrive from the house league system in large numbers by 2006. This group had won three consecutive Peewee Championships from 2003-2005 and back to back Junior Varsity Championships in 2004 and 2005. The Varsity team strengthened by this influx of home developed talent has made the playoffs 9 of the last 10 seasons with 4 conference championships.
Former Stallions player and now House League Director James Smith would like to thank the players, parents, coaches and athletic therapists for all their dedication and support this season over a fantastic 11 week campaign. The highlight of Coach Smith’s year end address to the Stallions family was a special thank you to Coach John Ball. Smith stated that Coach Ball “just finished his 10th year of working with our house league program. That is over 100 weeks of volunteering his time to provide youth with great experiences and growth through the game of football.
Congratulation John and Thank You!” The Stallions would also like to thank the following graduating players with their years of service in brackets: Tim Lennox (1), Austin Currie (3), Jayden Kelly (5), Tyler Dekkers (5). A special thank you extends to 10 year Stallion RJ Folz who began as a Mustang and worked his way through every level of the program.
The Stallions Varsity team has a playoff showdown this Saturday in Peterborough at 5 PM. The Bantam Stallions are hosting their playoff matchup this Saturday at Noon against North Halton. The winners of both games advance to the Conference Championship.
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