It was another great week of CPL football, and we are really starting to see the top four sides set themselves apart. 

Forge have won three straight games in just 9 days to put them at the top of the table; Ottawa finally got back into the win column with a dominant victory over a Pacific side that still can’t score; and Cavalry are up to four straight wins.

https://canpl.ca/standings/

This week, I am going to do something I haven’t done this season. I’m not going to be focusing on any CPL clubs at all.

I’m looking at another league that kicks off this weekend and it is a key cog in the Canadian football pipeline. I’m talking about USports! 

The Footy Prime crew even has a USports alum that played the other kind of football. Did you know Wonger won the Vanier Cup while he was at McGill? He’s never once mentioned it, humble guy that Dan is! (Editor’s note:  Brett, you got me.  Nice one.)

Some of the CPL’s past and present stars have made their way from USports: Lukas McNaughton was a Varsity Blue, Joel Waterman went to Trinity Western, Easton Ongaro was a Golden Bear at Alberta, Gabi Bitar and Amadou Kone went to Carleton, Zach Verhoeven from UBC, Aboubacar Sissoko played for the Montreal Carabins. That’s just a few of many.

The season officially gets started in Canada West on Friday night in Abbotsford, when UNBC will visit the UFV Cascades (and if you’re watching on Canada West TV, you’ll hear yours truly on the broadcast.)

The best young players across the country will showcase their skills to try and win a National Championship and potentially play in the CPL and beyond. 

This is also an important year for USports footy for another reason: the Northern Super League. 

I have no doubt there are women’s team players from the University of Victoria all the way to Memorial University in St. John’s who have their eyes on the inaugural NSL season in 2025.  The competition and the hunger will be so much higher as scouts will surely be watching.

I cannot recommend enough going to see your local school play this season, you just might see the next Canadian star in the making. 

Go Cascades.