Gaels football is a family affair

The Kingston Whig-Standard's Mike Koreen put together a feature last week on the Sheahan family tree's connection to Queen's and its football staff. Not sure how many teams anywhere in the CIS can say that they have three individuals from the same family running one squad.

Devan, whose playing career ended last season, never got the chance to play with Ryan, a quarterback and kicker at Queen's, from 2000 to 2004. Now, pops and his sons are all wearing the same coaching gear on gamedays.

"I don't know how many people in the world can say they love what they do and get to do it with their father and their kid brother," said Ryan Sheahan, a quarterbacks coach/video co-ordinator. Ryan became a full-time coach this year after the program did some fundraising.

"It's a positive environment, a great learning environment," Ryan Sheahan continued. "It's kind of like a dream come true. It's an ideal situation. We have great kids here and as soon as (a new) stadium lands, it will be bliss."

I'm sure the family ties elicit eye rolls in some pockets of the OUA, but in a sense it adds to the tightness of a very close knit Gaels program which has been very successful since Pat took over in 2000.

For those of you who missed it last week, theScore's DJ Bennett did a feature on the Queen's Gaels Vanier Cup tattoo which started popping up in 2009 - though Rob Bagg did have a similar tat prior to then.