LIVE: Canada v. USA in U18 & U19 North American Championships

AFI | American Football | 01/28/2017

Football Canada’s under-18 and under-19 national teams are set to face their counterparts from USA Football at the inaugural North American Championship on January 28 at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida.

Steve Sumarah and the rest of the Canada’s Junior National Team coaching staff will lead Canada’s U19 roster in preparation for the 2018 IFAF U19 World Championship. The majority of the roster is comprised of the all-star team selected from the 2016 Football Canada Cup, held July 9-15 in Winnipeg. Joining this core group include four players – Nick Cross, Mathew Goodall, J-Min Pelley and Charles-Émile Bouchard – who helped Canada to gold at the 2016 IFAF U19 World Championship in China.

Enter the 2017 U.S. Under-19 National Team and Kenny Sanchez, head coach of the Bishop Gorman High School (Las Vegas) Gaels.

The U.S. roster includes Notre Dame-bound quarterback Avery Davis of Cedar Hill (Texas); defensive lineman Fred Hansard of The Hun School (Princeton, N.J.), who has accepted a scholarship offer from Penn State; and Memorial (Port Arthur, Texas) cornerback Kary Vincent Jr., who has verbally committed to LSU.

Team Canada’s U18s unbeaten against United States

Marco Iadeluca, head coach of Quebec’s 2016 Canada Cup gold medal winning entry will serve the same role with Canada’s under-18 national team in Orlando. The U18 coaching staff was selected from each of the eight participating provincial teams that competed at the 2016 Canada Cup while the roster is also comprised of participants from the 2016 edition of the under-18 national tackle football championship.

Matt Hennesy is head coach of the United States U18 squad and was on the staff of the U19 team that lost to Canada in Harbin, China in the 2016 U19 IFAF World Championships. Canada is 6-0 all-time against the U.S. in Under-18 National Team competition.

“This will be the fourth time I’ve faced a team in the Canadian program,” said Hennesy. “Every time I’ve faced them, they’ve been extremely well coached, big, physical, and they play hard. People unfamiliar with international football don’t realize how well the sport is played at this level. They don’t get how big of an honor it is for the Canadians to play for their national team. If we don’t bring our ‘A’ game, it won’t be a good outcome.”