Stingers take 20th Shrine Bowl
Keith Dauper, Scott Syvret, Patrick Donovan, Brent Buckley and Mike Renaud celebrate their Shrine Bowl last Saturday with Grant Peterson, chairman of the event (wearing the fez, at the right). The children are Tony Vézina and Maryne Bérubé, who were chosen to represent the Montreal Shriners Hospital because they were successfully treated there for brittle bone disease. Over $70,000 was raised in support of the Hospital at the game this year, bringing the all-time total to nearly $600,000.
photo by Corey Narsted
The first Shrine Bowl, the brainchild of former Concordia football coach Skip Rochette and Karnak Shriner Grant Peterson, was played in 1987 between the Concordia Stingers and the McGill Redmen.
A fundraiser for the Montreal Shriners Hospital, the event was to become a highlight of the Quebec university football season. The intense rivalry between Concordia and McGill, who met in 15 of the 20 games, is unchanged.
“It’s like sibling rivalry,” Stingers football head coach Gerry McGrath says. “Who do you have the biggest rivalry with? Usually it’s your brother or your sister. The closer you are, the bigger the rivalry.”
This time out, Andrew Hamilton, the 2006 game’s MVP, blew the contest wide open with his second and third touchdowns of the afternoon early in the fourth quarter as Concordia cruised to a 41-13 win.
For most of the match, though, McGill gave the undefeated Stingers a stiff challenge, led by Jean-Nicolas Carrière on the defensive line. Concordia held a narrow lead at halftime, just 16-10.
“We expected a tough football game,” McGrath said. “Our defence prepared hard, since we knew that they do have a very good offence.”
McGrath’s team has been dominant this season, winning all five of its contests convincingly. The Stingers are ranked sixth in the country and are tied atop the Quebec standings with the Laval Rouge et Or, who are Concordia’s next opponents this Sunday.
The Stingers have the best in the business with Patrick Donovan, who won the award as top defensive player in Canadian university football last campaign. The offence is led by Scott Syvret, who was the 2005 Quebec conference MVP, as well as the aforementioned Hamilton, an explosive runner in his first year with Concordia.
Several Stingers and Redmen made a tour of the Shriners Hospital earlier in the week to visit the children. McGrath pointed out that the Montreal campus was the first place a child who suffered from stage-four brittle bone disease was able to walk, thanks to a cure found there.
“The Shriners work tirelessly for the hospitals across the world,” he said.