Huskies introduce new recruits
Team features new head coach and only five returning players
David Solie was recruited by Brian Towriss and Brian Guebert.
They’re gone, and he’s headed to spring camp with Scott Flory.
It’s been that kind of off-season for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football program, which is in the midst of a massive transition on the coaching front — a new head coach, just five returnees, 10 fresh faces, and a huge learning curve for everybody.
Solie, for one, never wavered. “(Playing Huskies football) has been a goal of mine ever since peewee football,” said Solie, a receiver and kicker out of Saskatoon Holy Cross, after he was introduced to fans at Thursday’s fundraising Dogs’ Breakfast.
“There were other schools in contact with me, but what really drew me to the U of S was getting to stay at home, and getting to play with my brother.”
Solie’s older brother, Jacob, is a Huskies defensive back. Their dad, Greg, also played Huskies football. As the kids grew up, they spent plenty of time at Griffiths Stadium, rooting for the home team.
“You want to be like them when you’re little,” David Solie said. “You want to be the star everybody’s cheering for. Getting a chance to do that would be pretty special.”
He’s taking that shot with a new Huskies regime, headed by Flory, who was handed the reins in March following Towriss’s December departure.
Paul Woldu, an ex-Huskie who played with Flory on the Alouettes, was part of the big coaching meet-and-greet Thursday. Woldu has been brought in as a defensivebacks coach, and will commute from his home in Regina to take care of duties.
“It’s pretty refreshing,” Woldu said. “The guys before — (Towriss) and Bomber (departed defensive co-ordinator Ed Carleton) and all the staff — they did such a great job of establishing a foundation and showing what Huskie football is all about. Now, I think we’re going to give it a bit of a facelift and start fresh.”
The Huskies introduced 14 recruits Thursday. Last year, they introduced 30. The annual recruit pursuit was hampered greatly by the off-season turmoil, and Flory hasn’t seen what most of his incoming players can do up close and personal.
This weekend’s spring camp, which kicked off Thursday and wraps up Sunday, should give him an idea of what he’ll have to work with.
“I’m just ... observing,” Flory said. “I’ll be wandering around and observing, to see how these guys respond. Who crumbles, and who rises up? What kind of character? I believe pressure situations are character-revealers. They’re not necessarily builders. That’s stuff that’s in you. We’ll reveal some character, and see what we’ve got.”
And as the new-look staff heads into player evaluation, Flory said very little is set in stone, personnel-wise.
“Kyle Siemens is our starting quarterback,” he said. “Past that, it is wide open, top to bottom. It’s going to be up to these guys to compete
and see where they fall.”
Spring-camp sessions resume Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m., and Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
The team will formally reconvene in August for fall camp. Their calendar includes a pre-season game Aug. 25 at McMaster in Hamilton, and the conference opener Sept. 1 in Manitoba.
“We just want to get on the field,” Flory said. “That’s where we want to be, and that’s what we want to do.”