Creighton’s high school football team will hit the field for its first official practices of the season this week.
The Creighton Kodiaks will start training camp at their home field this week in preparation of another Northern Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL) title defence. The team’s training camp will officially get underway August 18, with a mini-camp set for August 16 for new players and an official reporting to the club August 17 at 6:30 p.m. From there, training camp and practices will take place multiple times per week - five nights per week for one week, four for the next - in the run-up to the team’s first game of the season.
Creighton’s squad will play six regular season games this year, up from five last year. The season will start with a road matchup against the Chief Ahtahkakohp Titans at Ahtahkahkoop Cree Nation Sept. 7. The Kodiaks will play their second game of the year on the road as well, facing off against the Senator Myles Venne School (SMVS) Huskies from Lac La Ronge Indian Band Sept. 14.
Creighton will play their first home game of the season Sept. 23 in their first-ever night game on home soil, playing under Friday night lights on the Creighton Oval of Dreams Sept. 23. The Kodiaks will take on the rival Hector Thiboutot Community School T-Wolves from Sandy Bay, which will return to the NSFL for their first season since 2019.
A short week will bring the Kodiaks to a rematch on the road to last year’s league final game, going to Cumberland House to play the Charlebois Community School Islanders. That game will take place Sept. 28.
From there, the Kodiaks will play their final two games of the regular season at home, first against the West Side Warriors Oct. 5 - a combination team made of players from La Loche and Beauval - and then against the Minanik Waskahigan High School Lakers from Pinehouse Oct. 12.
This year will not feature a winner-take-all game for the Ralph Pilz Trophy as league champion. Instead, with more teams being added to the league and a longer season, the trophy will go to the team with the best regular season record.
The provincial playoff structure will start with a conference game Oct. 29, with the top team from the league moving on. The Kodiaks have qualified several times for conference games, played against schools from further south with longer histories of football than northern schools, but have yet to win one - the closest the team has come was last year on their home field, when the Kodiaks narrowly lost 30-26 to the Shellbrook Aardvarks.
Last fall, the Kodiaks earned their fourth NSFL trophy after an - almost - perfect season. Creighton went 4-1 through the regular season, the only defeat being a Week 1 forfeit loss to SMVS - the Kodiaks were unable to travel to play due to COVID-19 concerns from the school, putting the game down as a 7-0 Creighton loss. From there, Creighton ran roughshod on the league, defeating Ahtahkakoop 81-0, Cumberland House 68-20, SMVS 67-6 and Ahtahkakoop again 69-8 before taking a 56-12 victory in the league final against Cumberland House.
The Kodiaks have lost six players who graduated Creighton Community School this year, including two-way standout Noah Olivier, tight end and kicker Myles Patterson, bloodhound linebacker Brenden Haley, defensive captain Davin Eastman and key players Austin Harrower and Cole Slugoski. Several players with high roles from last year’s club, including pint-sized offensive dynamo and returner Carson Straile, quarterback Marcus Kennedy and rookie of the year Jordan Gorrell, are likely to come back.
