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Development camp builds football skills for Kodiaks

A pair of Creighton Community School athletes have received a once-in-a-career opportunity. For the first time, players from the Creighton Kodiaks football team took part in the Six Nations Elite Development Camp in Saskatoon.
Kodiaks

A pair of Creighton Community School athletes have received a once-in-a-career opportunity.

For the first time, players from the Creighton Kodiaks football team took part in the Six Nations Elite Development Camp in Saskatoon.

Kodiaks coach Ryan Karakochuk nominated three players for the camp. One player was unable to attend, but two Kodiaks – running back Shawn Francois and defensive lineman Brandon Knife-Nepitabo – made it to the camp.

“The camp was pretty good. I liked it. It went well,” said Knife-Nepitabo.

Around 25 indigenous football players from Saskatchewan and Manitoba took part in the camp, learning about the on-field and off-field aspects of the game.

“We got to do a bunch of tackling drills and stuff. It was pretty fun,” said Knife-Nepitabo.

“I was learning a lot of things I could do in practice.”

“There was team-building stuff, like the offensive and defensive guys going into one group and then as individuals, where you practice at your own position. The running backs go with running backs, quarterbacks as quarterbacks, that sort of thing. There were those, and then there was a scrimmage – an offence-defence thing,” said Francois.

Both players were important parts of last year’s Kodiaks squad, which finished just short of the team’s third Ralph Pilz Trophy in four seasons, wrapping up the Northern Saskatchewan six-a-side league season with four wins and one loss.

The team made it to a conference game against a larger club from Wakaw, Sask., ending the year with a 77-44 loss. Francois scored three touchdowns in the final game.

Neither Francois or Knife-Nepitabo will be eligible to play for the Kodiaks next season, but Francois plans to use what he learned at the camp in a new way – helping coach next year’s Kodiaks football team.

“I’ll be for sure helping out with the team. If I can’t play football, then I’ll for sure help coach,” said Francois, who hopes to continue playing the game in some way.

“It just gave me more insight into what to expect later on, down the road, with bigger hitters and bigger linemen – better players, really. I’m going to keep trying. Hopefully, I can keep playing football. I know there’s flag football.”

While Kodiaks players have not been a part of the Six Nations camp in the past, it isn’t the first training camp players from the school have attended this offseason. In May, 11 players from the club attended the Northern Football Jamboree event in La Ronge. Several members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders helped as instructors at the camp.

The Kodiaks are scheduled to start their season on Sept. 6 in Sandy Bay against the Sandy Bay T-Wolves. The team will play home games on Sept. 20 and Sept. 27.

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