Instead of preparing for the Atlantic university football playoffs, Jeff Cummins’ Acadia Axemen had a competitive game of flag football.
Such is the crackdown of COVID-19 which decimated AUS fall sports and its championships, including the football semifinals and Loney Bowl final which would’ve been contested over the next two Saturdays.
There wasn’t any guarantee the 2019 Loney Bowl champion Axemen would have made it that far, but Cummins liked his chances before the pandemic outbreak.
“We were out on the field playing flag football on Sunday morning and we had a conversation about how the coaches and I and a handful of the players would be prepping for the conference playoffs this week, if we were playing,” the long-time Acadia bench boss said.
“We felt pretty confident in saying that. I know it sounds rather arrogant but, in all likelihood, we would’ve returned 10 of 12 starters on offence and nine out of 12 on defence. We were feeling pretty good about that. We would have been successful again and put ourselves back into the Loney Bowl.
“It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating not to have that chance,” he added. “As football coaches, we don’t work for the nine months of the off-season. That’s not why we do this job. We’re in it for the three months of playing games. That’s the pay-off. We squeeze every lit bit of juice out of it. Now there’s no juice.”
The Axemen ran roughshod over their AUS opponents in 2019, running the table in the regular season with an 8-0 record and dismantling the Bishop’s Gaiters 31-1 in the Loney Bowl at Raymond Field. It was a dominating performance for Acadia, which led 22-0 at the half and accumulated 486 total offensive yards while allowing only 158 to Bishop’s.
It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise successful season for the Gaiters. They rebounded from an 0-8 campaign in 2018 to reaching the playoffs and playing for a conference title for the first time since 1994.
Bishop’s head coach Cherif Nicolas was hopeful that his youthful squad – which only had two fifth-year players last season – could carry that momentum in 2020. Instead, they’ve been practising in Lennoxville at their so-called ‘COVID camp.’
“We were on the field yesterday and we talked about how this week would’ve been the semifinals,” Nicolas said.
“It’s the hardest thing for a coach to let go and we can’t control this pandemic. But if we want to further our football team, we have to push through it. As hard as it is, we’re focused right now on our special COVID camp. We’re trying to be the best as we can be at our COVID camp.
“I’m sure all of the other coaches are finding it hard to keep these guys engaged with no games,” he added. “But it’s up to us to set the tempo. Our guys are buying in and we’ll continue to practise through to Nov. 14, which would’ve been the date of the Loney Bowl. Hopefully, we can get back to the Loney and win it.”
Much of the Acadia roster, too, would’ve remained intact for 2020, including quarterback and conference MVP Hunter Guenard who had a year of eligibility remaining.
“They were on campus and doing off-season work for the month of January and February and got into the first two weeks of March,” Cummins said of his returnees. “We had just handed out all of our gear on the weekend of March 15 to start on-field workouts and a day later we were told everyone had to go home. Those kids had trained for two-and-a-half months before COVID hit and didn’t get to have the on-field spring practice.”
Players like Guenard won’t lose his fifth and final year of eligibility this season and is permitted to play in 2021 if he chooses to do so. U Sports will provide a one-time exception for all fifth-year players because of the pandemic.
But Cummins doesn’t expect many of those returning players to be back for next season.
“Once the decision was made that we would not be playing, they made their decisions and choices and moved on,” Cummins said.
“I don’t begrudge them at all. It’s tough waiting around for a 21-month off-season. Life has to go on.”
