CJFL: Setting another record

When the Winnipeg Rifles visit the Valley Huskers on Saturday September 17th, CJFL history will be made.  It’ll be the first time teams from two different Conferences will play in a regular season game and the excitement is building.

This will also mark the greatest distance a team will travel for a regular season match up.  The Rifles are certainly no strangers to long road trips, heading to Edmonton and Calgary two or three times a year.  However the trek to BC to play in Chilliwack will set a new standard, even for them.  There is 2,214 kilometers between the two communities.  That’s 910.4 kilometers further than the Rifles travel when they visit Edmonton.

As a matter of fact, this trip will be one of the furthest for any CJFL game, including a Canadian Bowl.  Back in 2001 the Okanagan Sun traveled to St. Leonard (Montreal) Quebec for the national championship logging 4,617 kilometers, which is the greatest distance between two teams in CJFL history.

The second longest distance was recorded in 1992 when the Surrey Rams flew to Ottawa to face the Sooners in the Canadian Bowl. There is 4,328.2 kilometers in between the two teams.

In 2013 the VI Raiders faced the Windsor AKO Fratman in the national semi-final game, traveling 4,087.8 kilometers to get there.

Back in 1999 the Sun made the same trip the Raiders did to meet the Fratman traveling 3,712.4 kilometers, only to fall in the Canadian Bowl.

The Montreal Jr. Concordes boarded a plane and traveled 3,682.1 kilometers in 1982 to Vancouver to get shutout by the Renfrew Trojans in the Armadale Cup (known now as the Canadian Bowl).

And in 1990 the Calgary Colts traveled 3,035.7 clicks to face the Fratman in the national final and left with a Canadian Bowl title.

Although the Rifles-Huskers match-up is a shorter distance compared to these examples, it does stretch the boundaries for the CJFL in the regular season and could become an annual event for teams in the BCFC, PFC and OFC beginning in 2017.