NFC EXPANDING

The sport of football continues to grow at the amateur level in Ontario. The Northern Football Conference held its annual meeting in the Sault on the weekend and decided to admit the Tri-City Outlaws from the Kitchener-Waterloo area as its 11th team. Try-City will join the Sault Steelers, Sudbury Spartans, North Bay Bulldogs, Mega City Mad Dogs, Markham Raiders, Oakville Longhorns, Mississauga Wolverines, Milton Marauders, Oshawa Hawkeyes and Belleville Panthers as part of the NFC. Teams will play an unbalanced, eight-game schedule, with four games at home at four away. Geography will play a factor as the Sault will play home-and-home series with both Sudbury and North Bay. Meanwhile, two-time NFC coach-of-the-year Barry Rushon has said he will return to the sidelines for his eighth season with the Steelers, who had been called the Storm since returning to the NFC in 1996.