Inside the CFL: Labour Day Classic, Boksteyn Bowl highlight weekend of football action

By Graham Kelly on September 3, 2021.

Last Sunday’s appearance in Winnipeg was Calgary’s first road game in 666 days, an ominous number with Biblical implications. According to one expert, the appearance of the sacred number 666 is a sign there is a slight imbalance in your life.

Heading into the contest, Stampeder place kicker Rene Paredes was perfect. Hadn’t missed all year. The streak continued through his first three attempts. On the last play of the game, with a chance to kick his team to victory, his 52-yarder was wide right, Winnipeg winning 18-16. Calgary has lost three games by a total of 11 points. Not to worry Stamp fans.

Calgary has 16 new players in the starting lineup. They’ll supplement their roster in the next few days with cuts from the NFL. By October they should be the second-best team in the country. But first they have to take care of business, starting with the Labour Day Classic against Edmonton, an annual affair since 1972.

The holiday weekend kicks off tonight with Montreal at Ottawa. Sunday, the undefeated Roughriders will welcome Winnipeg to a sold out Mosaic Stadium in a battle for first place. The next day, it’s Toronto at Hamilton preceding the Battle of Alberta. All except Als/Redblacks are home-and-home series.

Labour Day week features the biggest gates of the CFL season, which might explain why the Elks, Stampeders and Roughriders won’t introduce their vaccine protocols until after their most profitable week.

It also marks the return to our hallowed halls of learning and the resumption of high school football. Some graduates of the Medicine Hat minor and high school football programs are no strangers to Labour Day classics.

After winning a Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts, Hat High’s Dan Federkeil returned to the CFL with Calgary for the 2013 season. He won five straight Battles of Alberta and appeared in three Grey Cups, winning it in 2014. He led his team to four first-place finishes in five years.

Crescent Heights High School’s Aaron Crawford did his crosstown rival one better, winning six Labour Day games versus Toronto as the long-snapper of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He made it to the Grey Cup in 2014, losing to Calgary. Monday’s clash will be his first in Stampeder livery. Certainly the Alberta teams want to beat each other but their rivalry is nothing compared to the Argo-Cat fight. Those communities really detest each other.

CHHS Viking Connor McGough, who recently retired from the CFL as a Stampeder before the 2021 regular season, won three straight classics over the Argos as a Ticat defensive end and special teams player. Monsignor McCoy Colt Ryan Folk, as a Montreal Alouette, won the Labour Day match-up over Ottawa in 2006.

The hard-luck guy in this scenario is Redcliff native, Medicine Hat High alumnus Nate Coehoorn. His Edmonton team, named after a superb group of admirable Indigenous people won but once in six tries, 35-7, September 5, 2011. An excellent receiver, Coehoorn won the Grey Cup in 2015, playing a pivotal role by making a key catch and setting up his team’s winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

All these athletes graduated from Gas City high schools. Coehoorn was drafted fifth overall in 2011 after a great career with the University of Calgary following single season stints with the Calgary Colts and Okanogan Sun. He says he was superbly prepared for a career in football by Quinn Skelton and his staff at MHHS.

“It was huge to play in a top program like that and being able to play in a couple of provincial finals and winning one,” he told me in 2015. “Playing in the biggest game of the year always helps moving forward to the next level.”

The success of Aaron, Dan, Nate, Ryan and Connor is a testament to the late Rick Boksteyn – who coached McCoy for 36 years and was honoured last night – and present day leaders like Quinn, Sean Davis of CHHS and current Colts head coach Darrell Grass. They’ve also had a positive impact on those who never went pro, including dozens who received athletic scholarships. A good example is Hat High’s Mark Friesen who got a football scholarship to Alberta. He passes his knowledge on coaching Bert Church High in Airdrie.

Best wishes to all involved in high school football.