The Westshore Rebels are busy circling dates on their 2023 calendar. The game that sticks out early is the Island derby that will open the sa国际传媒 Football Conference season in Nanaimo against the Vancouver Island Raiders on July 29.
It will be the first match-up featuring the Island rivals’ new brain-trusts. CFL legend and Raiders alumnus Andrew Harris, who led the Nanaimo club to three Canadian Bowl national championships in junior before winning four Grey Cups as a pro, was named head of football operations for the Nanaimo club this season before he is expected to add the head coaching duties in 2024 upon retirement from the CFL as the all-time Canadian leading rusher in league history.
The Rebels answer with a Grey Cup champion of their own as Dexter Janke becomes the new head coach of the club after having played in two Grey Cup games with the Calgary Stampeders and hoisting the Cup in 2019 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Janke is replacing Shane Beatty, who is moving back to the Interior.
“The Rebels-Raiders match-ups are always fun,” said Rebels president Rob Lervold.
Also circled, no doubt, for the Rebels is the first meeting at Starlight Stadium against the defending BCFC and Canadian Bowl champion Okanagan Sun on Aug. 26. The Sun defeated the Rebels in the 2022 BCFC championship game for the Cullen Cup at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna before advancing to beat the Ontario-champion St. Clair Saints in the national semifinal and the Regina Thunder in the Canadian Bowl. The Sun and Rebels are again expected to vie for the BCFC league championship.
“Okanagan is going to be a really good club again,” said Lervold, who also serves at the Rebels’ offensive co-ordinator.
“And we’re building on what we started last year, when we were very young, especially on offence. We have almost our entire offence returning and we’ve done a great job in recruiting on defence. We feel we will be right there when it’s all said and done.”
The Rebels have had 54 players out in spring training. The official spring camp is June 3-4 with main camp beginning July 8 at Starlight Stadium.
The seven BCFC teams will play 10 regular-season games each with two bye weeks built in. The regular season runs to Oct. 14 with the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs. The semifinals will take place Oct. 21-22 and the Cullen Cup championship game Oct. 28 at the home of the highest remaining seed.
It is the BCFC’s turn in the rotation to host the Canadian Bowl, which it will do Nov. 11, with the Cullen Cup champion to play the winner of a national semifinal between the champions of the Prairie and Ontario junior football conferences.
