The Oak Park Raiders varsity team beat the Dakota Lancers in a 22-17 win in the Winnipeg High School Football League AAAA tier 1 varsity championship at Princess Auto Stadium on Thursday, November 6, 2025. Congratulations to the team and coaches!
Head Coach Chris Ollson says this was definitely a season to remember.
"The junior varsity team went undefeated, and the varsity team only lost one game all season."
What does it mean to them to win the championship?
Winning a championship validates everything you're doing as a coach. It means we're doing the right things on and off the field. And it's also a memory our players will never forget. They're hard to come by, as the last Varsity championship title was in 2014, when Brady Oliviera was still a player. Our JV team has been on a roll though; Coach Chad Mackay was able to take home the championship last in 2022.
What happens next?
Next, we get to take a moment to catch our breaths. The last few weeks our football players have been working extremely hard, between film session at lunch, meetings and long practices, they all deserve some well-earned time off before we start to get back at it. Shortly we'll have the league banquet at the end of the month and our team banquet at the beginning of December.
We dedicated this entire season to the late Stu Nixon, who was a big mentor of mine, and someone that is dearly missed around this program. It's absolutely amazing to have been able to take home both the Junior Varsity, and Varsity Championships this year in his honour.
This program has always been built on character first, and we'll continue that for many more years to come. The future looks very bright for our Raider teams.
