HIGH ACHIEVERS: Gabrielle Vivier, Charley Toivonen reuniting with Football Canada national team

By Martin Cleary

Good friends and flag football defensive players Charley Toivonen and Gabrielle Vivier are having a reunion in the middle of June.

It certainly wasn’t scheduled, but they’re more than happy to get together to renew acquaintances.

Toivonen, a Grade 12 student at Osgoode Township High School, and Vivier, who is in her final year of high school at Collège Bourget in Rigaud, PQ, however, won’t be meeting in Ottawa, where they played in the Hawks Flag Football program for a year.

Instead, they will be meeting in Chula Vista, California, which is the site of a United States Olympic Training Centre and will become the short-term training centre next month for Football Canada’s 2026 national men’s senior, women’s senior and junior women’s flag football teams.

Vivier, 16, learned this week she was named to the national women’s flag football junior team for a camp in Chula Vista and the Junior International Cup June 17-21 in Los Angeles. Canada will be one of eight countries along with Australia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, South Korea and the host United States.

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Toivonen, 17, was selected to the Canadian women’s senior team earlier this month and is the youngest player on the roster.

“We really good friends, played for the same team and then we went our separate ways,” Toivonen said in a phone interview Thursday. “We played multiple times together. We play the same position (defence) and I’ve mentored her.”

“I’m super excited,” Vivier said about reconnecting with Toivonen. “I met her with the Hawks and we became close friends for a year and then I decided to move (to Rigaud). This will be a full-circle moment.”

Toivonen has committed to Concordia University for 2026-27 and will play for the Stingers flag football team, while Vivier will attend CEGEP de l’Outaouais in the fall and wear a Griffons flag football jersey.

After selection camps in Toronto and Montreal, Toivonen was named to the 24-athlete women’s senior national squad. Toivonen is considered a next-generation player.

The top 12 women from the Chula Vista camp will travel to China for another camp and exhibition games as Canada prepares for the International Federation of American Football flag football world championships in August in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The Canadian and American national flag football teams also will play a friendly game in Chula Vista.

Flag football is rising in popularity in North America and around the world as it will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“This group is explosive, smart and fearless,” Canadian women’s senior head coach Rachel Lessard said in a Football Canada media release. “We rise through chaos, we love pressure and we chase the toughest competitions.

“Our culture is built for big moments. With the pieces we have in place, I feel we have everything we need to stand strong and be competitive on the world stage.”

The 16-player men’s senior national team includes halfback Pascal Foccroulle-Menard of Gatineau. Former Ottawa Redblacks head coach Paul LaPolice is the head coach with the national men’s senior team.

Toivonen was confident she would make the national team in the future, but not necessarily this year. The phone call from Lessard saying she had made the team came out of the blue for her.

“I’m pumped,” Toivonen admitted. “I knew it was something attainable in the future. I wasn’t sure about this year. I’ve kept improving, hoping to make the team. I’m so excited. I knew it was a possibility, when I got the call from Rachel.”

Toivonen attended a regional selection camp in Toronto and was invited to the national selection camp for the top 50 players in Montreal. She also attended that final camp in 2025, but she was too young to be considered for the national women’s team as players must be a minimum 18 years old in that year.

A two-way player, she is strong on the defensive side, but also likes to run pass routes as a wide receiver.

“For me, there are two main reasons. I grew up being a basketball player. I have a lot of basketball background and I played competitively. I learned about rebounding, fighting for the ball. It’s something I take pride in,” she said, explaining her preference for defence.

“I like going for the ball and making the play. I’ve learned to protect myself coming down with the ball.”

She also enjoys communicating with her teammates and has a great love of the game.

When Vivier was much younger, she didn’t consider herself the sporting type, like her older sister Dominique, an accomplished curler at the women’s open and university levels, or brother Max, who is attending Colorado State University on a football scholarship.

But about seven years ago, Vivier started playing touch football at the house league level. When touch football transformed into flag football, she upped her game and has played at the competitive level the last three years.

“Making a national team was not a goal. I’ve only played competitive for three years and didn’t know there was a national flag football team two or three years ago,” Vivier said.

When Vivier made Team Ontario in January, she called that her “first big WOW moment.”

“I didn’t think the Canadian team was a possibility. This is a dream come true,” she added.

Like Toivonen, Vivier thrives on defence and has been motivated by her brother.

“I’ve learned to develop my leadership. I’ve been playing a long time and I can see how the game develops on the field,” she offered. “I have a good IQ, I’ve watched my brother play, I’m competitive and physical. And I like to work with a team.”

The Elite Flag Nationals, which were staged in Kington in the middle of May, served as the selection camp for the Canadian women’s junior (17U) flag football team. After the three-day nationals for boys’ and girls’ U14, U16, U18 and U19 teams, about 200 players attended a three-hour testing session to try out for the national junior teams. It was Vivier’s final chance to make the team before she aged-out next year.

“I was exhausted,” Vivier said about entering the testing for the junior team. “Before nationals, I was at a training camp for a full week.”

But she plugged into the energy provided by her family and friends at the nationals in Kingston and tried her best.

“I didn’t know what to expect and did what I could,” she added. “Previously, there were no tryouts because only the winning team (at the Canadian championships) would go to worlds. It’s amazing to give other athletes a chance to make it to the next level.”

At the Elite Flag Nationals, Team Ontario earned the girls’ U18 bronze medal, following a 28-19 decision over Manitoba. Vivier had two tackles and one pass deflection in the third-place game. She made 12 tackles and one interception on defence as Team Ontario posted an overall 4-2 record and added one pass-receiving touchdown on offence.

Toivonen was a dual spark plug for the girls’ U19 Ontario team as she posted 35 tackles, made five interceptions and recorded four touchdowns as the gold-medal squad had a 6-1 record. Ontario defeated Quebec 31-27 in the final as Toivonen made six tackles, five pass deflections and one interception on defence and caught four passes for 72 yards and one touchdown on offence.

The Team Ontario girls’ U19 roster also included Abby Innes of Kanata, Cameron Grant of Ottawa, Eleonore Brunelle of Ottawa, Hazel Pindar of Ottawa and Maya Levy of Ottawa. Levy was a standout as a receiver in the two playoff games as she had eight receptions for 97 yards and one touchdown in the final and 18 catches for 149 yards, one touchdown and one single-point convert in the 22-6 semifinal win over Alberta.

Team Ontario went undefeated in six games to win the girls’ U16 title. Ontario scored all 13 of its points in the second half for a narrow 13-12 victory over Quebec. Aubrey Moss, Grace Young, Kenedi Coker and Leakim Kabongo, all of Ottawa, Ella Graham of Metcalfe, Rubyn Gaffney of Woodlawn and Saskia Metternich of Dunrobin were on the Ontario roster.

Grayson Rouleau of Navan rushed for eight yards on two carries as Team Ontario outscored Quebec 35-25 in the boys’ U14 gold-medal final.

Defensive players Ethan Faller of Carp and Theo Seguin of Rockland helped the Team Ontario boys’ U18 team to the bronze medal, after a 27-26 win over Nova Scotia. Sequin made one tackle in each of the third-place and semi-final games, while Faller registered one tackle in the semifinal.

Quarterback Delia Pink of Kanata completed 11 of 23 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown and Sabrina Chen of Ottawa had five receptions for 71 yards, one single-point convert and a defensive tackle as Team Ontario lost the girls’ U14 bronze-medal game 30-7 to Alberta.

Danika Boeyen of Richmond and Josefa Cifuentes of Nepean also wore Team Ontario colors.

Xavier Jeglic and Andy Flahauw, both of Ottawa, and Hugh Swist of Smiths Falls played for the fourth-place Ontario squad in the boys’ U19 division. Ontario lost the bronze-medal game 47-38 to Quebec.