In the college system, Oklahoma State Cowboys running back \u2013\nand Edmonton native \u2013 Chuba Hubbard was a hair width away from winning the\ninfamous Heisman Trophy, the ultimate prize in the competition. In the last 20\nyears, only three running backs have won the Heisman. Being a Canadian and\ncoming that close is more than just an incredible accomplishment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might ask, how far have we really come as a country in\nour development of this sport? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s better now than it\u2019s ever been and it\u2019s\nonly going to get better,\u201d said Marcello Lio, head coach of the St. Andrew\u2019s\nCollege Saints first football and junior basketball teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s all thanks to the impenetrable belief system coordinated\nby Canada Football Chat. This organization has been the mantra in Canada for\nyoung athletes who are passionate about playing football. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve done an excellent job recognizing the top talent\nand ranking the top talent. You\u2019d be surprised, I think there\u2019s over 30 to 35 Canadian\nkids that are going to division one in the NCAA this year,\u201d Lio explained to\nThe Auroran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the website, there are currently 18 D1 Prospects. Every\nyear, the CFC hosts a prospect game and a youth prospect game on TSN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade 12 students at St. Andrew\u2019s College Nathan Falconi and\nBrendan Dilworth, who recently committed to Queen\u2019s University, were noticed\nthrough Canada Football Chat and participated down south. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All provinces in the country compete amongst one another. This\nyear, the Saints have seven prospects attending the Canada Football Chat Top\nProspects Camp and tryouts for Team Ontario. The hope is by mid-April, if there\nare no cancellations due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the prospects will be cut\nand Team Ontario will be formed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 2012, I took a stint with the junior national program\nhere in Canada. So, I had an opportunity to recruit across the country,\u201d Lio\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former quarterback\u2019s coach at York University went on to\nadd that Ontario does very well versus other competitive provinces such as\nQuebec. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, Grade 11 students, including quarterback Cameron\nMitchell, defensive lineman Kieran Walters and offensive lineman Ty White will\nmake an appearance in the prospects camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade Nine youngsters include quarterback Anthony Lio,\nrunning back Ahston Watson, defensive back Joseph Aitoro and offensive lineman\nNihaal Rana, who will compete as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lio speaks highly of each and every one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mitchell missed the prospects camp last season and is\nexcited about making it out this year should everything run smoothly. He has\nbeen working on his pocket presence and delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a tall player, he has the assets to be a great quarterback.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White is returning again and Walters is a great defensive\ntackle with some good potential at the U-sports level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the Grade Nines, Rana, Aitoro and Watson are ready to\ncompete at a high level. Lio used to coach Rana at the Bantam level. Watson is\na special running back and Aitoro has turned some heads with a great nose for\nthe ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lio went on to add that his son Anthony received offers from\nschools in Chicago, Lio\u2019s hometown, before choosing St. Andrew\u2019s College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lio, who played at York University and in Europe professionally, has worked with his son and says that he has been fortunate to be coached by him throughout his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n Processing the very thought of Canadians having the opportunity to play football at a high level, is not as far down the pecking order as you might think. This past year, Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif became the ninth Canadian to win the Super Bowl and the 16th Canadian to step foot out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6OS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 22:46:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" "\\"Share")
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