Football shares stage with rugby Thursday
RAYMOND COMETS PLAY WINSTON CHURCHILL BULLDOGS BEFORE U OF L RUGBY MATCH
Serious football players strength train diligently. That comes in handy for those who earn the right to hoist the Southern Alberta High School Football League team championship hardware each season.
The now six-plus decade (heck, even older than me) Division A T. Eaton “Gold Football” Trophy is without a doubt the most historic local high school sports bauble. The Division B Jerry Dawson Trophy is even more vertically prominent, at about 45 inches.
The respective 2017 races are about to explode out of the blocks with two games in each division this week. ••• The SAHSFL hardware is for regular season play. Only games between teams in the same division count.
Conversely, the post-season is conducted along Alberta Schools Athletic Association tier lines.
The SAHSFL allows teams to play in whichever division they want on a year-to-year basis.
LCI is defending the T. Eaton Trophy. Taber W.R. Myers hold the Dawson skyscraper.
For 2017, Division A is comprised of Cardston, Catholic Central, LCI, Raymond and Winston Churchill again this season.
The Division B entrants, all returning, are Chinook, Pincher Creek, Claresholm Willow Creek and W.R. Myers.
Raymond and Winston Churchill battle at U of L Thursday, with a 5 p.m. kickoff. This makes for an interesting doubleheader, immediately followed by the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s rugby team hosting the University of Calgary Dinos in a Canada West league encounter. Of course, both Churchill and Raymond have tremendous female rugby programs, so hopefully there is positive synergy in this event merger.
W.R. Myers visits Pincher Creek Friday at 4:30 p.m. There’s a doubleheader set for U of L Friday, with Willow Creek challenging Chinook at 5 p.m., followed by Cardston versus Catholic Central at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday sees an exhibition game at U of L as LCI hosts Calgary Bishop O’Byrne at 7 p.m.
There have been some really large crowds already this season at local high school football outings. Last Friday at U of L a single tilt may well have attracted a throng in the 1,000 range. Here’s hoping that trend continues. ••• There are no official Alberta Schools Athletic Association football rankings. Provincial playoff draws are preset once all teams/leagues have entered. However, Football Alberta produces expertly assessed top-10s weekly.
Currently six of nine SAHSFL teams are rated. Not bad.
Tier I - LCI (5), Raymond (10). Tier II - Catholic Central (9). Tier III - Cardston (2). Tier IV - Willow Creek (2), W.R. Myers (3).
Tier IV is open to teams that draw on an eligible Grade 10Grade 12 student population of 449 or less. The Tier III max is 749, while the Tier I top number is 1,249. These numbers include all the students a team potentially draws from. Take one kid from a school, add the entire eligible body count.
In football it is not uncommon for kids from schools who do not have football teams to play for other institutions. In fact kids from an unlimited number of schools who don’t play football could suit up for one program. I can remember a case where a team had players from five schools.
There can still be community teams, too. Pincher Creek is one such example, although Matthew Halton has really stepped up its connection to the program in recent years.
Like multiple ASAA team sports, gridiron teams can declare up. Raymond and LCI are, to my knowledge, two of the very few, if not only, programs that go up annually. Raymond delights in felling larger foes. Even with players from multiple surrounding small schools, I doubt they’ve ever drawn on more than 400 in a crusade. It might surprise many oldtimers, but LCI has less than 650 Grade 10-12 students these days, although they, too, have fielded performers from multiple institutions. Still, nowhere near 1,250 since the advent of Chinook. WELLSIE’S WORLD — My favourite sports fan used to habitually extol the value of perseverance. Two former Southern Alberta High School Football League standouts, both multiple-time SAHSFL all-stars, as well as being named most outstanding at positions in the loop, are certainly proving that fighting through barriers can ultimately produce positive results in the Canada West university pigskin football circuit. Raymond’s Brad
Baker, who is listed at six-foot-two and I’d guess tips the old Toledos (yes, a nod to
Ed Whalen) at around 200 pounds, suffered his first significant knee injury playing Comets hoops in Grade 11 as I recall. Knee woes have become habitual and he’s had at least two major surgeries over the years, including last season. However, Baker is now the starting quarterback for the University of Alberta Golden Bears, in his fourth campaign with the program. Winston Churchill product
Ross Delauw is in his fourth year with the University of Calgary Dinos. The listed fivefoot-11, 225-pound linebacker has worked his way up from a practice-but-don’t-dress for games “redshirt,” to an integral part of the defence.
Bravo to both lads.