Competing against the best
Sydney Academy Wildcats to open 2018 football season against top-ranked Citadel Phoenix
Kosten Giovannetti knows all too well how competitive the Nova Scotia high school football league has been over the years.
The Grade 12 running back has played with the Sydney Academy Wildcats for the past three seasons and has played against some of the best players in the province.
The Wildcats will open the 2018 Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation football season on Saturday when they host the Citadel Phoenix at 5 p.m. at Open Hearth Park in Sydney.
Giovannetti believes this year’s Wildcats squad will be better than in previous years.
“We’ve had more people show up and more players come to practice day-by-day, so it’s looking good for this season,” said the veteran player, who was inspired to play the sport by his brother.
“We haven’t set any goals yet for the season, we just have to play our first game and see how it goes and see how we stack up Kosten Giovannetti of the Sydney Academy Wildcats stands prior to football practice at Open Hearth Park in Sydney on Thursday. The Wildcats will open the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation football season against the Citadel Phoenix of Halifax, a club currently ranked as one of the top 50 teams in Canada.
against Citadel and we’ll take it from there.”
The Halifax-based Phoenix are currently ranked 41st among high school football teams in Canada. The team is the only Nova Scotia school ranked in the top 50 by canadafootballchat.com.
Wildcats head coach Lorne
Burke said as of Thursday, the team will have 35 players on this year’s roster, including 17 returning players.
“A lot of talent has come up to our program from Football Cape Breton’s bantam team and we have some returning players from last year, so we’re excited about the year and I think we’re going to be competitive,” he said.
“When we’re playing teams like Citadel, they’re a Tier 1 team and they’re going to come down with 60 players and they’re very well coached and experienced, and I think it will be a good test for our players and one they can learn from.”
Last year, the Wildcats, a Tier 2 team, finished the season with an 0-8 record. But Burke believes the record is misleading.
“If anybody came out to watch those games, if you look at the film, there was probably three of them games that we were definitely the better team on the field,” said Burke.
“We had a lot of close games last year against some very good Tier 1 teams. Cobequid Educational Centre (of Truro) came down and it was 9-6 at halftime — we were right with them.”
In Nova Scotia, Tier 1 and 2 teams play in the same division, while Tier 3 teams play in a separate division.
In total, the province has 22 high school football teams, 14 of those being Tier 2 schools.
“It’s a learning process for the players when we play the Tier 1 teams,” said Burke. “We’re hoping to have some success against them and that will build our season.”
Following Saturday’s game, Sydney Academy will hit the road for a game against Sir John A. MacDonald of Upper Tantallon on Sept. 15.
“If people want to see one of the best football programs in the country, they should come to Saturday’s game,” said Burke. “You’re not going to get that opportunity in Sydney very often.”
Giovannetti encourages local football fans to support the team this weekend and throughout the season.
“We’re hoping to have an overall good game and we’re hoping the fans will come out and give us some support and be behind us,” said Giovannetti. “We’re looking forward to the game.”