Four added to U18 National Team for International Bowl

Photo credit: USA Football

Football Canada announces the addition of Antoine Lemire (Ile Bizard, QC), Charles-Émile Bouchard (Saint-Prime, QC), Maguire Abell (Moose Jaw, SK), and Shae Weekes (St. Adolphe, MB) to the Under-18 National Team for the 2016 International Bowl series, January 31-February 5, in Arlington, Texas.

Games will take place at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, and are a collaboration of the sport’s national governing bodies in each country – USA Football and Football Canada – featuring top student-athletes in football’s greatest annual international competition.

Canada’s U18s will face the U.S. U19 selects on Sunday January 31 before taking on the U.S. U18 National Team on Wednesday February 3.

The Under-18 National Team is composed of participants from the 2015 under-18 national tackle football championship, the Football Canada Cup, which took place from July 13-19 at Cégep Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu’s Alphonse-Desjardins Stadium in Quebec.

The 2015 Canada Cup consisted of eight participating teams from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and two from host Quebec – Quebec-Blue and Quebec-White.

This year’s Football Canada Cup winning head coach, Brad Collinson, of Quebec-Blue, will serve as Canada’s U18 head coach while the remainder of the coaching staff is comprised of coaches from each of the national championship’s participating provincial teams. Collinson previously served as head coach of Canada’s U18 International Bowl squad in the game’s inaugural installment in 2014.

Canada’s U18 National Team head into their third International Bowl undefeated, after taking the 2015 edition at AT&T Stadium, 25-9, while in 2014, they defeated their U.S counterparts, 54-9, at Maverick Stadium.

A roster of 45 players will be selected based on Canada’s national teams’ performances against the U.S. national teams in the International Bowl’s U18 and U19 contests, and invited to participate at the 2016 world championship.

The International Bowl, held to coincide with NCAA’s National Signing Day, was established in 2010 as an annual Team USA versus the World game until it transitioned into its current format in 2014.

Canada’s U18 National Team for 2016 International Bowl 

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