It may come as no surprise that more than half of the graduating Mount Douglas Rams players from the 2018 B.C. AAA Subway Bowl championship team have committed to play U Sports football for a Canadian university in the fall.
The Rams have 10 graduating players from its 2018 championship team, with six committed to a school, another still undecided, and yet another who certainly could but but will forego for other interests, said Rams coach Mark Townsend.
READ MORE: Mount Doug Rams win fifth provincial championship in eight years
The Kremler twins, with star quarterback Gideon and mutli-tooled receiver and defensive back Zairech, are headed to Simon Fraser Clan. Rams team MVP Sebastian Hansen of Oak Bay is committed to the Queens Gaels, and leaves mid August. Aiden Bertuzzi will play for the UBC Thunderbirds, Dante Carbone for the Calgary Dinos and Ivan Xu for the Regina Rams.
“It’s a tremendous showing by this talented group of players from our 2018 team,” Townsend said. “We are waiting on [Aidan Wold] to confirm his commitment to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.”
Townsend added that Sam Mosky would have easily played at the next level but has chosen not to pursue university football at this point.
READ ALSO: Fourth Rams 2018 grad commits to university football
For Hansen, a lifetime Oak Bay resident, it’s been a longtime goal to play football at university. The former Oak Bay News carrier was a gold-level soccer player with Bays United who opted for Mount Douglas to play football. He also completed his national lifeguarding certificate through Recreation Oak Bay this year where he works as a camp leader and swim instructor.
The speedy Hansen, who is competing in the 100-metre, 200m and 4x100m dash for the spring track and field season, played receiver and strong safety for the Rams. With Queen’s he’ll specialize at receiver.
“I enjoyed the Queen’s campus and how it’s a university town and also it has great group of young coaches,” Hansen said. “I felt right when I was there.”
The invite to play for Queen’s validates Hansen’s academic, team and individual successes that he put a lot of work into, as he was also honoured with the Rams athletic academic excellence award this year.
Hansen played a crucial role on the Rams run to its fifth title catching three touchdowns in the semifinal win over Vancouver College and another touchdown in the final.
“The team MVP meant a lot considering how good the team is and how hard the players trained,” Hansen said. “To finish with a championship was great, especially after we lost in the [junior] final in Grade 9 and 10.”
Hansen was also humbled to be named a first team all Canadian by Canada Football Chat for the 2018 season.
He joins Rams 2017 alum Oliver McKenzie, who plays defensive corner for the Gaels.
