The football season officially kicks off today for the St. Albert High Skyhawks.
The stage is set for the Tier III north semifinal between the Skyhawks and Whitecourt Cats after a 3-4 dress rehearsal by the Miles division two team in the metro Edmonton league.
It's a noon start at Clarke Park and admission is $5.
This is the third Tier III (450 to 749 students) appearance in four years for the Skyhawks after Paul Kane decided to form its own football program instead of serving as a feeder school for the Skyhawks.
"We set our goal at the beginning of the year for a provincial championship and along the way in our league we wanted to win that as bad as anybody else but we understand that we have some disadvantages. We know now the playing field has kind of been evened out a little bit so this is where we put our focus, not that we are disregarding the regular season, but this sets a true gauge at where we're at as a school size and as a football program," said head coach Sam Johnson while supervising the team's daily mandatory study hall session prior to Wednesday's practice at St. Albert Catholic High School.
"We're happy where we're at right now."
This year the Skyhawks received an automatic provincial berth as the metro Edmonton rep because they were the only Tier III team in Miles.
The Skyhawks have yet to beat a team with a winning record this year.
"We have a lot more potential than we've showed," said Brandon Jillings, a Grade 12 tailback. "We're going to show them what we've got for sure."
The last game for the Skyhawks was the Oct. 21 first round playoff match against the Ardrossan Bisons, last year's Tier III Alberta Bowl finalists who are now competing for Tier IV (449 or less students) honours. The undisciplined Skyhawks lost 28-10 to Ardrossan (3-5), the same team they beat 23-14 in league play.
"After the game against Ardrossan when we kind of shot ourselves in the foot we took a few days off and now we're coming back strong. We're hoping to hit them pretty hard when we play the big game on Saturday," Jillings said.
The Cats (6-3) are coming off a 15-3 loss in the Mighty Peace Bowl to the St. Joseph's Celtics (11-0) of Grande Prairie. The Celtics (11-0) are the top Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) team in the Football Alberta rankings.
The Cats climbed out of the basement for their first trip to the Mighty Peace final in 14 years and their last provincial appearance was 2001.
The scouting report on the Cats is they run a double-wing system that is tricky to defend against.
"They're a good team," Johnson said. "We're expecting some hard-nose big farm kids that want to push us around a little bit."
The status of Logan Tait-Vanderheide, a hulking Grade 12 defensive lineman (19 tackles and five sacks) and running back (270 yards on 19 carries) was up in the air for the north semifinal at press time. Tait-Vanderheide was kicked out of the playoff game against Ardrossan for dirty deeds and there was uncertainty whether the standard one-game suspension in the metro league would carry over into provincials.
Tait-Vanderheide is one of the very few Skyhawks remaining from the 31-20 loss to the Cochrane Cobras in the 2012 Alberta Bowl.
This year's roster, fortified with extra bodies when the Skyhawks ceased operations of their junior program that was 2-19 dating back to the 2010 regular season, includes 21 Grade 12 players.
"For some people, like the Grade 12s, this could be the last time they'll ever play so everyone is going to come out with everything they got," Jillings said.
The winner hosts the north final next Saturday against the Cold Lake Royals of the Wheatland league or Sylvan Lake Lakers of the Central Alberta league.
The Alberta Bowl is Nov. 21 in Lethbridge.
In the Tier III rankings Whitecourt (6-3) is second, Sylvan Lake (6-2) is fifth, Cold Lake (5-4) is sixth and the Skyhawks are eighth.
Ups and downs
In league play the Skyhawks pulled up their socks after a rocky start against Paul Kane (8-0) in the Battle of St. Albert. Grade 10 quarterback Sam Cuciz was injured and didn't start as the two-time defending Miles champions returned three picks for touchdowns in the 56-0 rout.
The Skyhawks rebounded to win the next two games by a combined 76-0 score against the W.P. Wagner Warriors (1-6) and Strathcona Lords (0-6).
After losing 28-14 to the McNally Tigers (6-3), the Miles finalists, the Skyhawks defeated Ardrossan before falling short to the O'Leary Spartans (5-2) in a hard-fought 8-7 decision.
"It was an up and down year. We just never really found our groove," Johnson said. "We had some young players at key positions and some older guys at other positions. We also had some injuries and guys have been banged up all year but our boys played with heart and they played hard every week."
The Skyhawks placed fourth in the standings after losing their last three games last year to finish 4-4 overall.
"The Miles division was much improved this year," Johnson said.
Growing pains kept the Skyhawks grounded.
"We have a lot of inexperienced players, including myself. We try hard but when we all reach our potential we can do a lot better," said Jillings, first-year senior who played for the junior Hawks last year.
He credits the team's core of leaders for keeping the Skyhawks focused through some tough times.
"Our captains are always leading the team. They kept us strong and hyped up. They were definitely the ones to get us up over our nerves. They were constant throughout the whole season for sure."
Rory O'Donovan, the team's nominee for the Haliburton Trophy as the most valuable player in Miles, was a two-way threat in his Grade 12 season. The U18 Team Alberta linebacker at the 2014 Football Canada Cup in July led the Skyhawks in tackles with 27 while adding 21 assists and two sacks. He was also second in rushing with 338 yards on 43 carries for one TD.
John Brouse was credited with 17 tackles and two picks and Brady Gonek had 13 tackles and one pick.
Brouse also generated 192 rushing yards on 18 carries and grabbed seven passes for 103 yards.
Cuciz was third among Miles' quarterbacks in passing with 430 yards on 39 completions out of 66 attempts for seven TDs and three interceptions.
His main targets were Anthony Borelli, 16 catches for 240 yards and three TDs, and Jordan Kroeker, 15 catches for 168 yards.
Jillings, 16, was the top Skyhawk in rushing with 417 yards on 31 carries for fourth place in Miles. His team-leading four TDs included a pair against Strathcona. The season highlight was an 88-yard TD romp against McNally.
"I felt my nerves sometimes got in the way but when I ran hard I did pretty good," said the track and field sprinter who was the junior male discus silver medallist at the 2013 provincial high school championships at 38.06 metres.
"This game (against the Cats) I'm really going to try and show what I've got."
