The Okanagan Sun are proud to announce the signing of Elelyon Noa with the @bclions_official

Noa added 23 touchdowns and broke the single season rushing yards record (1,612yards) this year while taking home BCFC Outstanding Offensive Back and Outstanding Offensive Player honours.

The Okanagan Sun arrived home late this morning and we have a numbers of players who are sick, so we will be postponing our wrap up event at Dakodas today. Thank You to all of our fans who went to Windsor and at Dakodas for the watch party. Also big  shout out to all of our sponsors for the contribution to our run to the Canadian Bowl

Published by Loomly

Photo courtesy @in_motion_sports_photography

His vision is clear: make Kelowna the top junior football destination in Canada.

From ball boy, to Offensive Coordinator, Board Member to General Manager and now President, Nat Nagy has helped lead the Okanagan Sun with unmatched dedication and vision. In the last four years, Nat has helped guide us to two National Championships games (2022, 2024), has secured an overall record of 44-4 record, with 4 BCFC Championship appearances, and 2 Cullen Cup titles.

Nat’s commitment has been instrumental in creating partnerships like the Burn Fund Game, where, alongside The Stober Group and the BC Burn Fund, we’ve helped raise over $100k for fire victims in three years.

As we head into this year’s national championship game on Saturday, we’re grateful to have such an incredible leader driving our program forward.

Thank you, Nat, for your unwavering dedication, passion and commitment to excellence as you continue to set the bar higher every season.

Story Courtesy Eric Stansfield

Odds are good if you’re a Canadian football fan you’ve heard of the Grey Cup trophy and know of its legacy…what you probably don’t know, is that the Grey Cup has an older brother, the Canadian Bowl.

Awarded to the junior football league team that wins the national title, the Canadian Bowl is in fact one year older than the Grey Cup.

In 1909, The Earl Grey commissioned a trophy, the Grey Cup, to be given to the winner of the Canadian Dominion Football Championship, the country’s national title game.

The Canadian Bowl, only 365 days older than its little brother Grey, it is in fact the oldest football trophy awarded in North America.

The first junior championship game was played in 1908 in Montreal, when the Parkland Canoe Club of Toronto defeated the Lindsay Jrs. 22-0.

Though the championship tradition has continued for 115 years, the name of the trophy has evolved over time. From 1925 to 1975 it was known as the Leader Post trophy, from 1976 to 1988, the national championship trophy was the Armadale Cup. 1989 marked the beginning of CJFL Championship being known as the Canadian Bowl.

The Okanagan Sun who face the St. Clair Saints on Saturday, will be making their 10th appearance in the national final. The Sun have won three Canadian Bowls, 1988, 2000, and 2022.

Before becoming the St. Clair Saints, the organization was known as the Windsor AKO Fratmen who had competed in Canadian junior football since 1945. The Fratmen went to the final on eight occasions, winning three times, the last coming in 1999 with a 32-29 win over the Sun.

The Sun franchise and the city of Kelowna, BC, has hosted the Canadian Bowl three times, the first in 1984, followed by 1997, and 2000. The ’97 game, which featured the hometown  Sun vs the Regina Rams, is the only national championship to be decided by overtime, 23-20 Rams.

This weekend the oldest championship in Canadian football will be played out in the 115th edition of the Canadian Bowl. It’s the BCFC Champion Okanagan Sun vs the OFC Champion St. Clair Saints on Saturday November 9th, kick-off at 7:00 PM (EST), 4:00 PM (PST) at Acumen Stadium in Windsor, ON.

City of Kelowna providing travel assistance

for Okanagan Sun

Story Courtesy Wayne Moore Castanet

Photo: Eric Stansfield

The Okanagan Sun got an assist from Kelowna city council Monday morning.

Council agreed to take $10,000 from its contingency fund to help the junior football team offset travel expenses to fly to this weekend’s Canadian Bowl in Windsor, Ont.

This will be the second trip the Sun have had to make in the last three weeks after also travelling to Regina for the national semi-final 10 days ago.

The Sun, who won the Canadian Bowl in 2022 also made lengthy trips to Windsor and Regina on their way to winning the national title.

“We were obviously being very supportive of the football team and what they have done for our community,” said Mayor Tom Dyas pointing out how much awareness the team has brought to the city the past three years.

“It’s not something we make a regular practice of, but they had forwarded a letter to the clerk’s office stating their cost to get to the Canadian Bowl was just slightly under $60,000 and asked whether the city would give some consideration to assisting with some of their cost to get to the game and back.”

Council unanimously agreed to provide the funds.

The monies, Dyas pointed out, comes from the council contingency fund which council dips into from time to time when the need arises.

Dyas says the contingency fund had about $30,000 remaining.

The Sun will leave for the championship game Thursday evening.

The game itself between the Sun and St. Clair College Saints is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Pacific time Saturday.

Story Courtesy Eric Stansfield

Saturday November 9th, 202

Kick-off 7:00 PM (EST) 4:00 PM (PST)

Radio Broadcast – AM1150 –

Stephen Keppler and Jason Casey

Streaming at CJFLTV.com

A watch party will be held at Dakoda’s Pub on Saturday Nov. 9th, the game will be on throughout the pub.  Also, a silent auction will be held with many prizes, including a team signed helmet.  

For the second time in two years the BCFC Champion Okanagan Sun will travel to Windsor, Ontario to face the Ontario Football Conference Champion St. Clair Saints, this time around it’s for all the marbles, CJFL’s holy grail, the Canadian Bowl.

In 2022, the Sun defeated the Saints 42-24 in Windsor, to win the National Semi-final and a ticket to the final in Regina, SK.

The St. Clair Saints earned the right to host the 2024 Canadian Bowl as OFC Champions when they defeated the London Beefeaters 75-39 in the conference final.

Story Courtesy Wayne More Castanet

Photo Courtesy Eric Stansfield

Road trips to Saskatchewan used to be where Okanagan Sun seasons went to die.

Not during the Travis Miller era.

After going winless in 10 trips to the prairies in franchise history, the Sun are now 2-0 in the last three years.

The latest, a 28-14 win Sunday over the Regina Thunder at windy Leibel Field in Regina in the Intergold Cup, CJFL national semi-final game.

The Sun will now face the St. Clair College Saints in the Canadian Bowl Nov. 9 in Windsor.

The offence did just enough for the Sun Sunday while the defence, which gave up 143 yards on the ground in the first half, stiffened over the final 30 minutes, limiting the Thunder to just a field goal on their first possession of the third quarter.

That tied it briefly at 14 before the Sun took over.

Liam Attwood booted field goals of 30 and 35 yards before the quarter was over then Elelyon Noa, who was held in check much of the afternoon, ripped off a 17-yard run with less than five minutes left to put the Sun up by 12.

Out of the wildcat, Noa threw for a two-point conversion, the pass deflected off a Thunder defender into the waiting arms of linebacker Mitchell Hickingbottom putting the Sun up 28-14.

The Thunder never threatened from there.

The Sun took advantage of great field position on their opening drive thanks to a short punt and a 15-yard no-yards penalty.

Starting at the Regina 36, they needed seven plays and a gutsy third and goal from the two to open the scoring.

Again working out of the wildcat, Noa handed off to linebacker Jacob Bond who just squeezed into the corner of the end zone.

But, the vaunted Thunder running game that torched the Saskatoon Hilltops for better than 300 yards in last weekend’s PFC final, took over near the end of the first quarter.

The Thunder drove 90 yards on 10 plays, eating up 72 of those on the ground. Sadik Sadik, who ran for 61 yards in the opening half capped off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run.

A single on the ensuing kickoff gave the Thunder their only lead of the game.

Penalties and turnovers hurt both teams throughout much of the opening half. The Sun fumbled three times, two of those by quarterback Liam Kroeger. However, the Thunder were only able to turn those into three points, a Shawn Green 19-yard field goal on the final play of the quarter.

Prior to that, with the Thunder driving, defensive back David Lewis, who intercepted three passes in the BCFC title game, stepped in front of an intended receiver and scampered 73 yards down the right sideline to give the Sun a 14-8 lead.

The defence stiffened in the second half, allowing just 59 yards on the ground and forcing two late turnovers, a fumble recovery and interception from Vicente Ferreira.

The Thunder passing game was also nearly non-existent, throwing for just 94 yards.

Kroeger, who has gone the distance the last two games after seeing only spot duty during the regular season, completed 11 of 20 passes for 138 yards.

Noa was also held in check much of the day, running for 86 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, when he broke runs of eight, 16 and 17 yards did he have any success on the ground.

The Sun have two weeks now to get healthy and prepare for the Canadian Bowl.

St. Clair advanced to the title game with a 75-39 win over London in Saturday’s Ontario final.

The Sun beat the Saints 42-24 in the Intergold Cup two years ago on their way to a national championship.

Story Courtesy Wayne Moore Castanet

Photo Courtesy  Eric Stansfield

For the second time in three years the Okanagan Sun have captured the BC Football Conference championship.

The Sun rode the legs of kicker Liam Attwood and Elelyon Noa to a thrilling 23-17 victory over the Westshore Rebels in the Cullen Cup championship on a cool, drizzly afternoon at the Apple Bowl.

Attwood snapped a 17-17 tie with a pair of field goals from 31 and 26 yards out in the fourth quarter to provide the margin of victory.

The defence shut down the door through the decisive fourth quarter.

The Sun dominated the first half, putting up 245 yards of total offence to grab a 17-3 lead.

But, the Rebels took advantage of a pair of Liam Kroeger interceptions in the third quarter to square things up at 17 heading to the fourth.

Noa, the game's offensive player of the game, scored the game's first touchdown, pounding his way in from one yard out as the Sun marched down the field with surgical-like precision on their first drive of the game.

Attwood booted a 12 yard field goal on the final play of the opening quarter to put the home side up 10-1.

They took a 16-point lead in the second when Kroeger, who started in place of Marek Filipek, hit Jordayne Falconer for a 26-yard touchdown.

A conceded safety left the Sun with a 14 point lead at the half.

As they did in last year's title game, the Rebels dominated the third quarter.

Ethan Pickard hit Zion Brown with a 12-yard major after Kroeger's second of three interceptions on the day to pull the Rebels to within seven.

On their next possession, Carter Williams scampered in from 11 yards out to tie the score at 17.

But the Sun defence came up strong and the offence did just enough to give Attwood a chance to kick the Sun to the victory.

David Lewis, the defensive player of the game, had three interceptions for the Sun while Easton Fenske picked off Pickard on the final play of the game to preserve the victory.

The Sun amassed 362 yards of total offence compared with 252 for the Rebels, much of that in the third quarter.

The Sun will now travel east next weekend to face the winner of Sunday's Prairie Football Conference final between the unbeaten Saskatoon Hilltops and the Regina Thunder.

Okanagan Sun head coach Travis Miller has been named the 2024 coach of the year in the British Columbia Football Conference (BCFC).

"I don't really treat it as a 'coach of the year' award, we look at it as a organizational award," Miller told Black Press Media. "I think it's paramount that our success is based off of not just myself but the entire coaching staff we have and our board of directors as well as our volunteers and obviously the players. As much as my name is on it, it's more of a reflection of the mass amount of people that have effort in the organization."

This is the second time in his three seasons at the helm that he's won the award.

As a group, we have a standard that's very difficult for anybody to achieve, outside perfection, it's the standard we set," said Miller. "Everybody tries to achieve that standard and in the process of doing so, we keep a level-up and keep everybody on the same page with obviously success coming on the field as a result."

Miller has lead the team to the BCFC championship game in every season. In 2022, he led the team to a BCFC and Canadian Junior National Championship, the team's first in 22 years.

Last season, they lost in the BCFC final to the Westshore Rebels. This year, Miller and the team are going for another BCFC championship this Saturday, Oct. 19, against Westshore for the third straight year. 

"In order to be the champions, you want to beat the champions," Miller added. "From my standpoint, it's been about working as hard as I can in order to make sure that our guys are prepared in the end and move forward in the right direction."

This is the second time in his three seasons at the helm that he's won the award.

"As a group, we have a standard that's very difficult for anybody to achieve, outside perfection, it's the standard we set," said Miller. "Everybody tries to achieve that standard and in the process of doing so, we keep a level-up and keep everybody on the same page with obviously success coming on the field as a result."

Miller has lead the team to the BCFC championship game in every season. In 2022, he led the team to a BCFC and Canadian Junior National Championship, the team's first in 22 years.

Last season, they lost in the BCFC final to the Westshore Rebels. This year, Miller and the team are going for another BCFC championship this Saturday, Oct. 19, against Westshore for the third straight year. 

"In order to be the champions, you want to beat the champions," Miller added. "From my standpoint, it's been about working as hard as I can in order to make sure that our guys are prepared in the end and move forward in the right direction.

In his three seasons, Miller has a 34-2 record.

Congratulations  to the players selected as BCFC All Stars

Kaiden Kerntopf            OL

Miceal Aston                    OL

Hunter Bultsma              DL

Dylan Remillard              DL

Elelyon Noa                       RB

Jacob Bond                         LB

Kenley Williams               DB

Ahmed Borhot                  DB

Grady Hay                          P

Since 1981, the players who have worn the Orange and Brown have helped build this program into what it is today.

Graduating players have always had a chance to "sign the wall" so that their names will be forever remembered inside the Sun Locker Room.

In the early 2000's, there was a fire inside the room, and a lot of those signatures were lost.

Today, marks the start of the Locker Legacy initiative.

ANY player who played for the Okanagan Sun has an opportunity to put his name, number, position and years played, permanently inside of the locker of his choosing.

Name Plates are  $250.00 each

Click the link to purchase your name plate today!

Check out video under Locker Room at top of the page

https://loom.ly/MBTU-vw

Creative: @undrdogmediainc