[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/semifinalfootball2011.jpg” caption=”For the McMaster Marauders football team, including players, coaches and support staff, the experience of reaching the national championship – Friday’s Vanier Cup game against Laval – is genuinely a lifetime highlight, one that comes early for many of the young crew.”]VANCOUVER – The realization really began to take hold as the plane dipped through the
clouds and the North Shore Mountains came into view.

The feeling grew stronger a little later on the ground, as the team buses pulled up to BC
Place.

The feeling reached a crescendo as the McMaster Marauders entered the newly
refurbished football palace by the Pacific and stood on the spot where they would soon
compete for Canada's national university football championship.

They had really made it to the game of their lives.

It's been a long journey that has taken them across Ontario, to the east and west coasts,
and through some hardship.

For the McMaster Marauders football team, including players, coaches and support staff,
the experience of reaching the national championship – Friday's Vanier Cup game
against Laval – is genuinely a lifetime highlight, one that comes early for many of this
young crew.

It's an experience that takes in the ranks of parents, fellow students, alumni, university
and civic leaders and other supporters who will make up a large contingent of fans at
the game, helping to shrink the great distance between home and away.

In these final hours leading up to the game, the team is intensely preparing at practices
and in private film study and strategy sessions at their hotel, a few blocks from Stanley
Park.

Still, there is at least a little time to reflect on the meaning of the experience.

“It's honestly a dream for any football player,” said backup kicker Teddy Peters, who was
called on to kick when Tyler Crapigna missed two games this season.

As an 18-year-old first-year student, Peters is only in his third month of university and
already on a national stage.

“This is the most exciting thing to happen to me so far. The Vanier Cup, TSN, this is
big,” he said. “This is a life-changing experience, for sure.”

Crapigna, the team's starting kicker, is only a year older at 19, and no less enthusiastic
about the chance to play for the Cup.

“It's an unbelievable experience. This is the pinnacle of success in CIS football. I just feel
very thankful to be here,” he said. “It's an awesome experience to be here with guys
you've been playing with, day in and day out.”

Wide receiver Matt Peressini, an offensive captain playing his fifth season with the team,
is happy that he decided to come back for one more year.

“I've been working hard my whole life playing football,” he said. “Just being in this city,
with all the football history here, it's incredible to be in this final game here with all this
excitement.”

The thrill of taking part in Canada's championship football weekend extends through
every branch of the Marauders organization, and athletic therapist Aleisha Adeboyejo is
brimming with anticipation.

“The experience is unbelievable,” she said. “To be a part of something this big, not only
for the team, but for the entire university community, has been amazing.”

The fourth-year kinesiology student says working with players and other therapists has
drawn her out of her old shyness, while teaching her plenty about the field she plans to
enter.

“In kinesiology, a lot of the courses that we take are very rehab-based, anatomy-
based,” she said. “It's so great to learn something in the textbook and then be able to
see it first-hand in the clinic, treating players.”

The Marauders take on the Laval Rouge et Or Friday at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST. The
game will be televised live on TSN and supporters in the Hamilton area are invited to
McMaster's Burridge Gym to watch it on a big screen. Doors open for the free event at
7:30 p.m.