Riot savouring perfect season
Gridiron ladies capture third title in four years
It was the perfect end to a perfect season.
The Regina Riot put the finishing touch on its first-ever undefeated campaign Sunday afternoon with a 14-10 win over the Saskatoon Valkyries in the Western Women’s Canadian Football League’s championship final at Mosaic Stadium.
It was the first time that Saskatoon and Regina had met in the league final, even though they’ve been the top two teams since the loop debuted in 2011. The provincial rivals had clashed in each of the previous seven Prairie Conference finals, with the winner moving on to face — and soundly defeat — the champion of a traditionally weaker Western Conference.
However, due to a change in the playoff format this season, the Riot and Valkyries finally got to meet on the league’s biggest stage.
“Being with the team from the beginning and moving from kind of like a rec team to now an elite team, (this year’s perfect record) is kind of like a cherry on top of a great season,” said linebacker Adrienne Zuck, whose club went 4-0 in the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs. “I’m really happy that we ended up playing this final. It was a true final, because I feel like the best teams played in the final. It wasn’t a blowout. It really makes it more fulfilling in the end.”
It was the second straight league title for Regina and the third in four years. Saskatoon captured each of the other five championships, including four straight from 2011-14 and another in 2016.
After playing catch-up for the first few years, the Riot has taken over as the team to beat.
“It always seemed like Regina struggled with funnelling in athletes from other sports or varsity athletes,” said Zuck. “It seemed like Saskatoon always had a better transition from varsity athletes joining football. It’s nice to see Regina finally catching up and getting those recruits from varsity teams and even younger athletes, too.”
As the program evolved, internal expectations grew as well.
The end result was a perfect season in 2018.
“It was the goal to be a championship team while still focusing on every game as it comes,” said running back Mallory Starkey, who is in her seventh year with the team. “A perfect season isn’t something you plan to happen, but the fact that it happened really speaks to how far we’ve come as a program, and the work we’re willing to put in as a team.”