ARROWS FOOTBALL

ARROWS HISTORY

Team History
Hurricanes Era
Back in 1997, Fernando Heleno put a team together called the 'Hurricanes'. The team jerseys were orange with white numbering, and the team was sponsored by East Side Mario's (Winston Churchill & QEW). The Hurricanes played in the Mississauga Touch Football League (MTFL), a weekday summer league and the Metro Toronto Touch Football League (MTTFL), a fall Sunday afternoon league. The team was primarily comprised of Heleno's co-workers and others he met through playing social weekend tackle football. The Hurricanes played in 1997, suffered a hiatus in 1998 and resumed in 1999 and 2000. For two seasons, the Hurricanes played with very little success and eventually dissolved due to Heleno no longer wanting to manage the team, and a lack of committment by players to return for another season.

Vipers/Thunder Era
In 2004, Heleno's interest was renewed and he formed a new team in the Mississauga Touch Football League (MTFL) known as the 'Vipers'. This time around there was no sponsor and the team wore blue jerseys with white numbering. This team was primarily comprised of new players with little or no experience that were recruited through the league with and a few from his old Hurricanes squad. The team went 0-10 in it's first season, and experienced a lot of turmoil. After the 2004 season, Chi-Wah (Bill) Chan volunteered to take over managing the team as it appeared the team would fold after one season, in line with suffering the same fate as the Hurricanes team did in the past. Chan renamed the team 'Thunder', gave it a new look for a fresh start. The team wore black jerseys with hunter green shoulders, silver trim and white numbering. Chan recruited a lot of new talented players, along with adding more of the original Hurricanes and social weekend tackle football players. In two seasons, the team suffered many roster changes and was not able to improve on their previous seasons. After a 1-18-1 record over the two seasons and a lack of commitment from players in returning for a third season, Chan was decided to put the team on hiatus for the 2007 season. In 2008, Chan was once again not able to get a team together for the following season and chose to play for another team. Chan was recruited by one of the MTFL's longest active teams with a lot of history, Gang Green. In playing with Gang Green, he managed to renew a sense of enjoyment in playing the game and was interested in trying to build on this to form a new team at the end of the season.

Arrows (2009-Present)
After two seasons of not fielding a squad, it was clear there was probably no chance of reuniting some of the players to re-enter a team into the MTFL. The Thunder was no more. In late 2008 and early 2009 after much discussion by many of the old team members from the Thunder squad expressing their desire to play touch football again, Chan formed a new team and entered the MTFL for the 2009 season with the 'Arrows'. The team would once again see a new look for a new start hoping to put the past behind them. The team was comprised of primarily of players from the old Thunder squad. Many of the players on the current Arrows Football team are friends with some tackle football experience playing either Woodlands Secondary School or St. Martin's Catholic Secondary, many who also commonly worked at Zellers (Westdale Mall) during the 1990s. Other players recruited are co-workers, former co-workers, friends of co-workers, people met through from playing a social weekend tackle football game, family relatives or friends, or simply just recruited through the league as individuals looking to sign up with a team.