With pass on IFAF world championships, what's Canada's senior team's future?

Amidst all the drama about the apparent IFAF split and what that means for Canada, it would be easy to overlook how Football Canada didn't even send a team to this month's senior world championships. That's an interesting story in its own right, though, especially as Canada took silver at the last edition of the tournament, in Austria in 2011. I was able to address why it happened and what the plans are for future competition at the senior level in an interview with Football Canada executive director Shannon Donovan Friday. Donovan said the biggest issue in putting a team together was the timing, as the event's held during the CFL season and also when many CIS players have their own season preparation going on. Players were also tied up with CFL training camps and tryouts during the period they would have needed to come together for this team.

"The timing of the event is very difficult," she said. "We couldn't find a way to make it work."

Donovan said it was also difficult to get those players without CFL tryouts to commit to this, as it's a user-pay program (players have to mostly pay their own way) and one that requires them to take substantial time off work, which can be a difficult task for post-college players (a key source of Canada's players in 2011) who are looking to move into new jobs after football.

"It's the money and the time away from work," she said. "They're just starting to figure out their post-career lives. The players do want to put that logo with the Canadian flag on their helmets, but it's a lot to take on."

Curiously enough, the late decision to move the event from Stockholm, Sweden (which was announced in December) to Canton, Ohio (which was only named as the new venue in February) decreased interest further. Donovan said it may have been a bit cheaper to go to Ohio, but the idea of representing Canada overseas had much more appeal for many players.

"A world championship, you want to see the world," she said. "There's one thing about going to Europe for three weeks, there's another thing about going to Ohio."

They looked at bringing back some players from the 2011 team, but found particular difficulties in filling the offensive and defensive line slots.

"The OL and DL had mostly retired," Donovan said. "That was definitely the hardest."

Donovan said that's part of the challenge of an event that only takes place every four years, as it's tough to keep players around and interested in the meantime given the lack of other top-level senior competitions.

"Being every four years is really hard," she said. "It's hard to build momentum."

In the end, the decision was made not to send a team this year. That doesn't mean Canada won't compete at the senior level in the future, though. The next senior world championship will be in 2019, and Donovan said they're exploring various options for sending a team then.

"We've definitely realized there are some other options," she said. "For now, we might need to stop focusing so much on the CIS and former CFL players. Those are the elite players in our country, but until the date changes or we're able to provide more resources, we can't get many of them."

She said one potential consideration is having an existing club team from a senior men's league represent Canada, as Hockey Canada used to do in the Olympics back in the day.

"That's an option," Donovan said. "It's being examined."

She said particular advantages with a club team include the lack of extra identification tryouts, the team's pre-existing familiarity with each other and their coaches, and the decreased travel costs if players are all coming from one location.

"With a club team, you can build it into their schedule and it's easier to plan," Donovan said. "There is the ability to reduce costs on travel."

The long-term plan may involve the junior national team, though, as that's where more of Football Canada's resources are being focused as part of a mandate from Sport Canada to develop a high-performance group and receive increased funding for that.

"Once we have that and are recognized as a high-performance sport, that will help out all our teams," Donovan said. "The junior team, we're seeing a lot more growth, a lot more awareness with that group."

The junior team has plenty of events on the horizon, including identification camps in December before the International Bowl against U.S. teams at the end of January. Canada will be sending two teams there, or a total of 80 to 90 players, to take on the U.S. U18 and U19 teams. The top 45 or so Canadian players will then come together for next summer's IFAF world junior championships, and the coaching staff is already looking intently at performances in events like the recent Canada Cup to see who might be a good fit for that team.

Donovan said it's much easier to put together a strong national junior team, as these players don't have as many other commitments before they hit the CIS level and are easier to find through existing tournaments such as the Canada Cup. Plus, the biannual nature of the world junior championship makes it easier to keep momentum going.

"Junior, we're able to identify those guys," she said. "Being able to plan two years out is huge."

Donovan said the focus on building up the junior team could have long-term benefits for Canadian football and for participation on the senior team.

"Once they get into CIS and the CFL, they'll be more familiar with the program and want to play again."

Also see my interview with Donovan on what's going on with the IFAF.