The resurgence of high school football in the city is continuing with a couple of more schools getting back to the gridiron this fall, including Danforth Technical and Collegiate Institute, and a combined entry from Eastern Commerce Collegiate and Monarch Park Collegiate.
The three Toronto District School Board (TDSB) schools are all within walking distance of each other in the Danforth/Greenwood area.No doubt, they would like nothing better than to emulate the success story of East York Collegiate, just a little to the north on Coxwell Avenue, which is now a powerhouse after resurrecting its mothballed program earlier this decade.The two new local football teams will kick off play in the board's developmental league."I think like every sport and club in the school, we're driven by kids' interests and what they ask for," said Monarch Park Collegiate principal Rob MacKinnon. "Our school doesn't have a big enough population to run its own football team, but there are a lot of kids who would really like to play football."Monarch Park has about 860 students and Eastern Commerce has an even smaller school population at about 500, so the schools decided to twin, as they have done in the past, for instance in boys hockey where Monarch Park has had some Eastern Commerce players on its team."I don't think it's done very often, but because we're relatively close geographically it seemed like it was a workable deal, and the kids were really excited by it, so I said let's try it out."Both schools offer a myriad of sports programs and Eastern Commerce, in particular, is known for its hoops program. In fact, it boasts provincial champions for both its male and female teams at the top 4-A level in the province - the only such school ever to hold both titles at once. And that despite the fact their small school population makes them eligible to compete as low as the 2-A level (smaller schools can choose to compete up levels, but larger schools cannot compete below their category). On the other hand, Eastern Commerce also have an advantage in being able to draw students from throughout the city.While hoops is obviously featured at Eastern Commerce, it's not for everyone and principal Sam Miceli feels the football program will offer students "another outlet to be successful and be engaged in something positive."Support, he said, has come from outspoken Etobicoke councillor Rob Ford whose football foundation paid for half the equipment costs.The head coach is Sean Henderson from Eastern Commerce, a former player for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues."Sean, believe it or not, started dryland training (for the team) back in the fall of last year - almost a year ago," said Miceli, who added the school managed to convert a large closet into "a very large fitness centre that we're just starting to stock."Miceli said the plan is to practise at Eastern Commerce and play the games at Monarch Park Collegiate."I don't know about you, but one of the things that kept me in school was knowing that I had practice every day whether it was basketball or football or rugby. I think that's missing in a lot of our schools so it's nice to see that Monarch Park, Danforth and us - and really it seems a handful every year - are getting on board."Danforth Tech football staff could not be reached prior to The Mirror deadlines.The football schedule had not been released prior to The Mirror press deadlines.