Humboldt will not only be represented by a player at the Football Canada Cup this week, but will be present on the officiating crew
Stephen Gray will be in Antigonish, Nova Scotia as part of the officiating crew throughout the week.
He said the selection process for officials began in March when an application was sent to the registered officials. Along with a letter of recommendation, Gray sent in his application and found out in mid-April that he was selected as part of the officiating crew.
In total 16 officials were selected with Gray being one of the two representatives from Saskatchewan.
He said it was quite an honour to be selected.
“There's a fair amount of officials in the country and there's only 16 of us going.”
Gray added that the Canada Cup is a prestigious event for high school football.
“It's going to be a lot of excitement to see how different provinces officials work and how the football is another province as compared to Saskatchewan, because relatively at this tournament, Saskatchewan is one of the top teams in the tournament, so we're going to get to see some premier football.”
Over the last 20 years, Gray has become a familiar face on the gridiron, officiating nine-man and six-man football around the area. In 2016, he began officiating in Saskatoon beginning with Peewee and Bantam leagues before moving up to the high school level.
He travelled BC in 2019 to officiate the U16 tournament and then in 2021 he was selected as official for the Prairie Football Conference (PFC) and was later named to official crew for the Canada West Football Conference.
Before he patrolled the sidelines, Gray was on the ice as a referee in hockey for Humboldt and the surrounding area.
After arriving in Nova Scotia, it will be a quick turnaround for Gray and the other officials before Monday’s games.
“You got to kind of hit the ground,” he said, “We’ve had a few online meetings to discuss our tendencies, but you really don’t know what each other is like till you get on the field and kind of work your way through it. It doesn't take long to get good chemistry with the guys because everybody's kind of on the same page. We're all at pretty much the same level of officiating skills. So, it doesn't take long.”
Gray will be working as head referee and umpire during the Canada Cup. His first task will be to be the umpire for the BC and Quebec matchup on Monday afternoon. He hopes that he can be part of the crew that officiates the gold medal game on Sunday.