New app spotlights Canadian university sports

Andrew Wilimek and Bryden O’Flaherty grew to love university sports from different viewpoints, but they share a vision to showcase the athletes’ tales and talents. 

Mr. O’Flaherty was a quarterback for the University of Regina Rams, while Mr. Wilimek was sports editor and later co-editor-in-chief for Fulcrum, the University of Ottawa’s English-language online student newspaper. 

They joined forces this year and have co-founded an interactive app called OB. that launched Aug. 8, with Mr. O’Flaherty as CEO and Mr. Wilimek as editor-in-chief. The app features game coverage, stats and stories about the football teams and men’s and women’s basketball squads competing under U Sports, the national umbrella organization for university sports. It also allows users to create and join fantasy leagues. 

“We hope to reshore Canadian passion for university sports,” Mr. Wilimek says. 

OB. is a progression from a similar project Mr. O’Flaherty began after graduating last year with a business administration degree. He had created an OB.SESSED brand that included separate apps for U Sports fantasy football and men’s and women’s basketball games, and he promoted the apps on his ob.sessedsports Instagram account.  

Aware of uOttawa’s Fulcrum Sports Instagram account, Mr. O’Flaherty reached out to Mr.Wilimek late last year. Their mutual interest in producing a national USPORTS media platform turned into the OB. app.  

“Part of the plan is just to sort of make the app a one-stop shop for everything USPORTS, so we can kind of combine all the fans from different platforms into one,” says Mr. Wilimek, who recently graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree, majoring in business technology management.  

The new OB. app is free to download on the App Store and Google Play and has two levels of access. All users can view scores, statistics and standings. They can also play fantasy games at no cost, chat with other fans and read one free article each week. 

Paid subscribers have access to exclusive stories by more than a dozen writers from coast to coast that highlight players and coaches, and delve into wide-ranging topics. Subscribers can personalize the news they receive by selecting specific teams and individual athletes to follow.  

“Our target audience is first and foremost parents, coaches, scouts, alumni,” says Mr. Wilimek. “The end goal of U Sports as a whole, and our app as a whole, is to grow fans.” He says he hopes students will download the app and also subscribe, but he knows many are on tight budgets.  

While media outlets across the country give university sports some ink and airtime, there’s a void the pair aims to fill with unique coverage, Mr. Wilimek says. “I think that’s also sort of our role, is to give the student perspective, the fan perspective on it as well,” he says. “We’re not a 24/7 news cycle like an ESPN and SportsCentre.” 

The paid writers include students, graduates, a university sports information co-ordinator and Scott Hutter, a defensive back with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes and former Wilfrid Laurier University player.  

The app’s co-creators have reached out to schools’ sports information directors about the app and have permission to use team logos, likenesses and photos.  

Mr. Wilimek says more than 1,000 users created accounts on the app, both free and paid, within the first five days of the launch.