For some, Thursday June 1st is the biggest day of their young lives, as the CJFL presents National Signing Day.

The day is earmarked every year on June 1st, the day in which players can finally sign with a CJFL club.  When a player signs an agreement, he is essentially signing for his entire junior football career as the player then becomes the property of that team.  

So many considerations are made before signing with a CJFL club; location, team support, roster depth, coaching staff, scholarship program, etc. all weighs in on a player’s decision.

National Signing Day is not only exciting for the players, but the coaches as well.   Their ideas, hopes and hard work will finally come to fruition as they start to fill their roster spots.

Following National Signing Day coaches can continue to recruit and sign a player immediately if he’s a good fit for their team.  That said the bulk of the players ready to play in the CJFL will sign on June 1st.

Once players sign on the dotted line, coaches can begin developing their schemes and systems around their potential starters.  They can also begin preparing for their Main Camp along with Week 1 of the regular season.

All three Conferences and 19 CJFL teams will participate on June 1st, signing players to their 2023 roster.

Fans can keep up to date with CJFL National Signing Day on social media with #CJFLSigningDay as teams will be posting once a player signs.
 

Photo courtesy of Joanna Kurowski Photography

The London Beefeaters open their 2023 Spring Camp this weekend with high expectations after playing in the Ontario Conference final last season.

Second year head coach Matt Snyder has been busy recruiting and is excited to get back on the field expecting 90-110 players for Spring Camp on Saturday.  There is a nice mix of veteran and new recruits that are both local and from across the province that will attend camp.

This weekend will build upon the already 12 off season workouts that the Beefeaters have held since January.  However, due to the limited space they focused on skill development during this time so this weekend will be first to install some actual plays.  “Our plan on Saturday is to introduce our base system on both offence and defence,” says Snyder. “This is our initial family of plays that serve as the foundation for future installs and ensures we can lean on these plays during our summer workouts before training camp starts.”

The Beefeaters have elected to run a one-day spring camp to ensure the maximum number of players can attend without travel issues. It is unique but it works for their club so to not interfere with a very popular summer football program in the area.  They plan to hold two practices on Saturday, then a systems walk thru and finish by playing a modified scrimmage.

They are coming off another successful season in the Ontario Conference in 2022 finishing 6-2 with the second stingiest defence allowing 16 points a game.  They anticipate to have about 90% of their expected 2023 roster in attendance on Saturday. 

They will open the season on August 12th when they visit the Ottawa Sooners, the team they eliminated last year in a Conference semi-final.   Their home opener will be played on August 20th when they host the Hamilton Hurricanes.