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Kodiaks aim for league football title: players

Late in his team’s first practice of the new football season, Creighton Kodiaks head coach Ryan Karakochuk has a suggestion for his players: “Have some water, guys. You’ll need it.

Late in his team’s first practice of the new football season, Creighton Kodiaks head coach Ryan Karakochuk has a suggestion for his players: “Have some water, guys. You’ll need it.”

As he says that, Shawn Francois – last year’s starting running back, now an assistant coach – lays out a series of cone markers, about 10 yards apart.

The players have been running for an hour and a half already and are beat – at least two are on the ground, sucking wind.

It’s time for the last drill of the session. It’s a line run, all the way up and down the field, with players doing five pushups at each stop on the way back. 

The players groan. Francois shrugs them off.

“I played with a broken shoulder last year. I’m sure you can handle this,” he says.

One thing is for sure – if Karakochuk and Francois have their way, no football team around will outrun this year’s Kodiaks.

Hopes

This season comes with high hopes from the players, despite the departure of several top players from last year.

Both Francois and starting quarterback Bailey Eastman have left the club, taking with them the 16 touchdowns the two scored last season.

To have success, the team will need to lean on less experienced players.

The Kodiaks’ likely starting quarterback this year is Blake Alexander, a Grade 10 student entering his second season with the team.

When asked about his hopes for the year, Alexander was blunt.

“I think we’re going for a league championship,” he said. We came close last year and we should have a better offence this year. We’ll work with what we’ve got.”

Alexander will see a lot of action this year, pulling double duty as the team’s quarterback and kicker.

In total, Alexander finished off 22 post-touchdown converts last year – in the northern league, these kicks are worth two points instead of the traditional one.

After just one year, Alexander is already the all-time league leader in field goals. In a league where almost no teams kick the ball – some fields don’t even have uprights – Alexander cashed in four field goals last season.

The Kodiaks’ defence may also prove to be a key for success, as leaders from last year’s squad, including Noah Dickens and Haiden Kanto-Lengyel, are back this year.

Kanto-Lengyel, a defensive back, is quick and athletic and has proven adept at stopping a play. Once he squishes his helmet on over his long blond hair, he becomes a feared presence for opposing teams.

Kanto-Lengyel is happy to be back on the field – especially because it means he gets to hit people again.

“Oh yeah. That will be fun,” he said.

“I missed just playing the game, being out on the field, out with the boys.”

Schedule

The club will start the season with a road game against Sandy Bay on Sept. 6. Karakochuk expects the Sandy Bay T-Wolves to make a major step forward this year.

“Sandy Bay has been that third-fiddle team, where they’ve always been behind us and Cumberland, but not by much. This year, I think they have their most seniors,” he said.

After the Sandy Bay game, the Kodiaks will head to Prince Albert to play the debutante La Loche Lakers in a neutral site game.

Then, on Sept. 20 and Sept. 27, the Kodiaks play their only two scheduled home games of the regular season against the reigning champs Cumberland House and Pinehouse.

The Cumberland House game is one both Kanto-Lengyel and Alexander have circled on the calendar.

Last season, the Islanders were the only northern team to beat Creighton – once during the season and once more in the Ralph Pilz Trophy game, costing the Kodiaks a league championship.

“We’ve got them at home this year. That’s a team that beat us both times last year, so we’re looking to beat them,” said Alexander.

Cumberland House has lost several top players from last season, news that is welcomed by Kanto-Lengyel.

“They lost their biggest guy – thank god,” he said.

“First year, that’s who I had to match up against all game. That was fun.”

Since the Creighton football program first hit the field in 2013, strides have been made with the game in northern Saskatchewan.

“What we’ve done in five years, as a league, I think is a huge success story. I don’t think we talk about it enough, but it is successful and we have a lot of coaches and people to thank,” said Karakochuk.

 

Growth

Football in northern Saskatchewan is still in its early stages. This will be the league fifth season, and while response to the sport and games has steadily grown, there’s still a long way to go.

Northern Saskatchewan football is still an underdog story, even for the top teams.

At the end of the season, the top two teams in the league will play for the Ralph Pilz Trophy – the Kodiaks have won it twice in the past four seasons. After that comes an even bigger test, a conference game against larger, more experienced schools in the south.

Last year, the Kodiaks headed to Wakaw, Sask. to play the Wakaw Warriors in a conference game. It ended as a hard-fought 77-44 loss. In that game, the Kodiaks brought 18 players – the hometown Warriors had a team with more than 50 players.

There is a culture surrounding high school football in southern Saskatchewan that hasn’t yet become ingrained in the north, said Karakochuk.

As far as learning the game, the culture around it and getting more volunteers and coaches involved, there is room for improvement.

When Karakochuk compares his own past, playing high school football in Wynyard, Sask., to football in Creighton, there are differences.

“From playing in the south, football is embedded in the south. Football is the top sports program in all of the schools down south. That’s how it’s looked at. It’s not like the movies and shows you see on TV from the US, but it’s not far from it. A lot of the community businesses will shut down for a couple of hours and come watch the football game,” he said.

“I would compare it to the Flin Flon Bombers and hockey for us. It’s embedded in you when you’re born. You go to Roughrider games and you learn football, and it’s very comparable to hockey down there.”

One of the surest signs of success for northern football could come from a conference game – a northern team beating a southern team. In the past four seasons, it hasn’t happened. The Kodiaks have come the closest of any team, losing to Birch Hills by six points after winning a league title.

Karakochuk is not sure if this year will be the year when a northern team wins, or if it will be his Kodiaks who break through. Between then and now, there’s an entire season to play and anything can happen.

“You need to do all the little things right. You have to be ready. You have to be focused, you have to be able to tackle and block and you have to put your best foot forward on that game. You might need a little bit of luck,” he said.

“Sometimes, it’s good being the underdog.”

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