Centennial high school has won its first OFSAA football championship.
And the Guelph school did it in emphatic fashion, capping off an undefeated run for the ages, running the table through the District 10 regular season, through the D10 playoffs, CWOSSA and OFSAA, with many wins coming via the blowout variety.
The finale was a 35-7 win over the Westmount Wildcats (Hamilton) in OFSAA’s Southern Bowl, held in Windsor last Wednesday.
“It was pretty surreal,” head coach Zach Pollari. “It sets in a little bit more every day. It’s so rare to end a football season knowing this was our last practice, this was our last game. There’s no more games I can play, there’s no more games I can win, it’s the end of the season, we’re victorious, we accomplished what we came to do.”
It’s a first-time experience as a coach, one who played in some big games as a player.
Pollari was an offensive lineman with Western in the late 2000s, and made it to a Vanier Cup before a short pro career with the Toronto Argonauts.
The Spartans went 11-0 during the regular season, and dominated in the biggest games of the year.
It took down Bishop Mac 45-3 in the D10 final, and went on to win its first CWOSSA (Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association) crown, outscoring the opposition 134-19 in three victories.
“It was across all facets of the game, special teams, offence, defence,” Pollari said. “Just did a great job all year.”
He gave credit to the offensive line for being instrumental in the team's success on offence, getting the run game going, and taking pressure off the quarterbacks all season long.
He named a few individuals, such as wide receiver Matthew Stam – who got some attention on an NFL broadcast earlier this year and is one of a couple Centennial commits to the Guelph Gryphons next fall – linebacker Griffin Taylor, Jackson Leshuk, lineman Logan Leger and Shai Scott.
He said these vets, and many other pieces came together and were solid all season, one Pollari described as “storybook.”
There was a feeling it was a special team at the beginning of the year, but Pollari noted you just never know how you’ll stack up against different regions in the province.
“That said, we were optimistic and we’ve always tried to instill in our players ‘you gotta believe, and you gotta try to have the confidence that you can do this, you can play with anybody,’” he said.
“We were able to do it this year. It was just outstanding.”
The Spartans were ranked as the sixth best football team in Ontario, according to a poll of 25 coaches, after OFSAA was completed.
The win is also a win for District 10, which has struggled in CWOSSA play.
Centennial was the first Guelph-based team to win CWOSSA since John F Ross won in the 2009-10 season.
