Last year, retired Barrie Central Collegiate rugby coach Ron Andrews was doing a little coaching overseas in Portugal and Spain for a travel company.
He offered his services to another coach — willing to observe practice, give feedback, or step in and run a few drills.
The coach looked at him with a critical eye. “Who are you?” he asked.
Andrews introduced himself.
“What’s your background?”
“I coached at Barrie Central,” Andrews replied, adding that he had also enjoyed strong success at Barrie North Collegiate.
The coach shrugged. “I never heard of it. What’d you do at Central?”
Andrews gave a modest, factual summary of his resume: “Well, we won nine gold, five silver, and five bronze medals.”
The coach’s eyes suddenly widened. “Yeah, you can run a few drills for me then.”
Andrews still bursts into laughter telling the story. It was a funny moment, but it captured something profound: time flies.
While there are some people who might not immediately recognize his name, mention of a two-decade haul of 19 provincial medals, coaching gigs with both the provincial and national level teams, and the rugby world immediately pays attention.
On November 14, at the Maple Banquet Hall in Mississauga, Andrews won’t need to prove his credentials to anyone. He will officially take his place alongside five other inductees and one team in the Class of 2026, entering the Rugby Ontario Hall of Fame.
“It was a big surprise,” Andrews said of learning about his induction. “I’m extremely honoured and humbled. Being inducted into the Barrie Sports Hall of Fame was fantastic and a very good honour. I’m proud of what we did at Central, and then the teams I coached outside of that in terms of provincial and national as well.”
That journey to provincial rugby royalty didn’t start in a pristine boardroom or on an elite training pitch. It started in 1998, on a strike picket line.
Andrews, a Brampton native who was head of physical education at Barrie Central, was pacing the sidewalk when he struck up a conversation with a new colleague pounding the pavement alongside him. Steve Porter was an elementary teacher who had just made the jump to secondary school to teach special education at Central. Porter noticed Andrews was handling the school’s rugby program alone.
“I knew that I really enjoyed the game, and he was flying solo at that,” Porter recalled. "I said to him, ‘I’m looking to become as involved as I can be at the school. I understand that you’re coaching by yourself. Would you like a hand with the rugby team?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah, absolutely.’”
That chance encounter sparked a 21-year coaching partnership and a lifelong brotherhood. Despite both being hyper-competitive leaders, they achieved a remarkable feat. Over two decades, through hundreds of matches and endless hours of preparation, they never had a single argument.
“Ron was the turbocharger on the engine,” Porter said. “We shared all those years, all those competitions... we just knew what it took. Him being more of the leader — he was the head coach — that was no problem for me. We shared such similar mindsets.”
Together, Andrews and Porter, and later assistant coach Jay Malandrino, transformed the Central rugby program into a juggernaut. At its peak, Barrie Central wasn’t just a place where boys played rugby; it was a culture where everyone in the building wanted to be part of the team. Hockey players, soccer players, swimmers, and kids who had never picked up an oval ball were drawn into the program.
The key to their success wasn’t just technical X’s and O’s. It was relationship building.
“I found that if you sincerely care about the kid, if you can develop a relationship with a player so it’s not just about rugby, you instill a drive in them that, hopefully, they can carry over from the pitch into life,” Andrews said. “The culture of excellence and identity of what Central rugby was developed early in the ’90s, and that just snowballed.”
Porter echoes that sentiment, noting that their success was built far away from the scoreboard.
“The program was built in the hallways, in the classrooms, before school, at lunchtime, and after school, where we interacted with our kids and earned their trust,” Porter explained. “It’s not a fluke that 68 kids who played for Central ended up playing for either Ontario or Canada.”
For Andrews, the unique nature of rugby itself provided the perfect vehicle to mould young men. Introduced to the sport in Grade 9 by his own mentor, the late Ken Jones (himself a Hall of Famer), Andrews fell in love with the game’s ethos.
“There’s a camaraderie that exists on and off the field,” Andrews reflected. “When you’re inside those lines, you try to move each other. But afterward, you buy the opposition a soft drink — or an (alcoholic) drink if they’re over 19. You sit down with the coaches, trade ties, and tell stories. It’s not just about winning and losing. It’s what occurs off the pitch, which is very unique for a North American sport.”
While the high school program was his cornerstone, Andrews’ expertise stretched far beyond Barrie. Seeking to test himself at the highest levels, he coached provincial teams in Ontario for seven years before joining the national ranks. He took the reins of Canada’s Under-17 program and went on to coach Canada’s Under-19 men’s team at six Junior World Rugby Championships, eventually standing on the sidelines for 35 international matches.
“To be able to represent your country at a world championship is the highest honour,” Andrews said. “To watch those kids pull a jersey over their head, sing the national anthem, and play really well on the world stage was really special.”
Yet, among all the international matches and provincial crowns, one year stands above the rest: 2015.
Barrie Central hosted the OFSAA provincial championship in what everyone knew were the twilight years of the historic Barrie school before its closure. Adding to the storybook setting, both Andrews and Porter had sons on the squad — Robbie Andrews and Keaton Porter — who were the two star players on the team.
The tournament reached a fever pitch in the final match, when Central scored a dramatic try with no time remaining on the clock to secure the OFSAA Gold Medal on the home pitch.
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“Those are the things that dreams are made of,” Andrews said. “Afterward, I just sat on the field. We had no rush to leave because we knew what happened that day was extremely special, and that it was going to be over a year later.”
A little while after the game, Porter remembers sitting at the centre of the field alongside his best friend. The crowd that day was filled with thousands of spectators, many of which were former players who had travelled from all over to watch.
“The whole moment was just the coup de grâce,” Porter said. “It was an amazing moment.”
The following year, 2016, brought heartbreak when Central’s run ended on a controversial technicality call in the quarter-finals during the school’s final year of existence. But the spirit of the program endured. Both coaches transitioned to Barrie North Collegiate, bringing their signature culture with them and leading North to an OFSAA Consolation Championship and the Sports Leadership Award in 2019 before retirement called.
“The three years Steve and I had at North were great,” said Andrews. “They welcomed us with open arms.”
There were other cherished moments. Andrews will always remember the last practice at Central, his team’s final game at the 2016 OFSAA championship, and walking off the field for the final time in 2019 with Porter.
Looking back on his storied career, Andrews is quick to redirect the spotlight away from himself. He emphasizes that his Hall of Fame induction belongs to a vast community: his wife, Cathy, and his family; assistant coaches like Porter and Malandrino (who coached alongside them for eight years); the referees, therapists, and local media.
He also has high praise for the junior coaches who helped develop players for the senior teams.
“It takes a community, that’s for sure,” Andrews said. “I took little bits and pieces from so many great coaches and melded them into a style that worked for us.”
Though the whistle has blown on his high school coaching career, the plaques, medals, and photos still hold pride of place in his home, triggering floodgates of warm memories whenever he looks at them. More than the hardware, it’s the lasting connections — like former players such as Jason Verstraten reaching out decades later to ask for guidance for their own children — that truly define his legacy.
“What Steve and I forged was very special,” Andrews said. “I just can’t express enough how much I share this with the players, their families, my family, and the coaches. It was a really special time.”
