Work continues on raising the roof in Year 2 of the Sturgeon Spirits in high school football.
“Last year was about setting the foundation of where we want to go in the future,” said Chad Hill, head coach of the division three Gilfillan conference finalists in the metro Edmonton league. “We really set the tone for what we stand for and the culture that we want, and this year we’re trying to take a step up from that.”
Sturgeon finished 6-2 against Gilfillan teams and both losses were against the Ardrossan Bisons and the second setback was 31-2 in the final at Commonwealth Stadium.
“For a lot of people that was sort of exceeding expectations to be in the final, and to be quite honest when I saw the group of boys we had assembled I said that’s got to be our goal,” Hill said. “We had some Grade 12s like Nathan Brake, Chase Kobza, Zach Roberts, some really strong leaders that had played football before, and they were great guys to start a program with. For those guys I wish we could’ve had the Cinderella story and won it all, but they have a lot to be proud of being in Grade 12 starting on the first ever Sturgeon football team and we made it to a final.”
Last year’s roster was strengthened by the 12 players who huddled up with the junior or senior Bellerose Bulldogs in 2017 when Sturgeon was a feeder school for the Bellerose football program.
“I wasn’t really surprised how well we did last year. I knew the group of guys we had coming in and all the new kids. I was confident in everybody,” said Kyle Phillips, a Grade 12 receiver who played for the junior Bulldogs. “It’s really exciting to start year two. Hopefully we’re coming back to how we were last year going to the championship.”
Hill, the former Bellerose head coach (2008 to 2017 for the seniors and 2005 to 2014 for the juniors) sees similarities with the early years with the Bulldogs and his current team.
“At the other program every year was about building on where we've been, always trying to do something better, something new and being true to ourselves who we are and what we stand for and that’s where we’re at here,” Hill said “It’s fun trying to build something special with this group.”
The year of firsts for the 2018 Spirits, the eighth-ranked Tier III (450 to 749 students) team in the province, included the first league win (26-7 against the Holy Trinity Trojans) and first playoff win (37-7 semifinal against the Beaumont Bandits).
“It was a lot of fun to go out there and play on your school’s first football team. Of course, we had a bad ending, but we’ve learned from it and hopefully we’ll move on from it and have a better year,” Phillips said of the worst performance of the year in the rematch against Ardossan after dropping the first regular-season game in Sturgeon history 33-28 to the Bisons at Larry Olexiuk Field. “We learned how it is in the playoffs. You have to play your hardest every game to move on and if you don’t do that then you’re done.”
This year Sturgeon will line up in the new division two Miles/division three Gilfillan format to determine the playoff pairings in the Miles and Gilfillan conferences.
Sturgeon’s opponents in pool A are the St. Albert High Skyhawks (finalists in the Miles and Tier III north provincials), Paul Kane Blues (non-playoff Miles' team), Strathcona Lords (2-4 in the division one Carr conference), McNally Tigers and O’Leary Spartans of the Miles and Beaumont of the Gilfillan.
Pool B features Ardrosson, Archbishop Jordan Scots (Miles’ champions), M.E. Lazerte Voyageurs, Leduc Tigers, St. Francis Xavier Rams of the Miles and the unknown Lillian Osborne Legends.
“Our goal obviously is to make that top three spot and compete in the Miles’ playoffs because that would be a step up from where we were last year,” Hill said. “We’re a small school though and a new program, but we have the talent level to compete with this 13-team combined division and it’s a lot more appealing than dropping down into division four. We get more games up here and it’s a higher level of competition, which will help grow the program.
“That being said we’re going to be in some tough games this year, but I honestly feel we’ve got a dedicated group of guys coaching this team, we’ve got a dedicated group of players and we have a good talent level with some of the returning players from last year.”
Phillips is among the 19 veterans on the 41-man roster. “We have better kids this year and more diverse kids,” he said. “I don’t think we have one spot that's necessarily stronger over another one. It’s balanced throughout.”
Grade 12 quarterback/kicker Zach Froese, last year’s Gilfillan conference MVP, is Sturgeon’s marquee man.
“Zach is obviously incredibly important to this football team, “ Hill said of the 2017 MVP on the junior Bulldogs who completed 77 of 125 passes for 1,304 yards and 19 touchdowns while picked off twice while also leading Sturgeon in rushing with 319 yards on 38 carries for three TDs during a 4-1 regular season. In the final, however, Froese was intercepted four times.
“The offensive line play is going to be stronger than it was last year. It’s early in the season and we’ve got a few guys nicked up but, when healthy, we have six kids that are ready to go on that offensive line. We’ve also got a couple of newer players that are learning the position so we’re deeper than we were last year and our top end is a lot higher than it was last year on the offensive line, and Zach is going to benefit from this," Hill said. “We honestly think our defence is going to be better than last year, too. In some of the games we looked very, very good on defence and in other games we got exposed a little bit."
Sturgeon kicks off its league schedule Friday against Paul Kane at 5 p.m. at Larry Olexiuk Field.
“Hopefully it will be a good game no matter what and we come out with a win,” Phillips said.
The last tuneup for Sturgeon was Saturday at its second annual jamboree and the scores were 14-8 against the Whitecourt Cats and 16-6 against the Father Mercredi Trappers of Fort McMurray.
Ironically, spotted in the stands at Taurus Field in Fort Saskatchewan were Paul Kane assistant coaches' Brayden Guy and Bryce Hughes checking out the Spirits.
The previous weekend, Sturgeon was in Rocky Mountain House to play the West Central Raiders and the result was 60-18 after leading 37-0 at halftime.
“It was a good game. The defence played amazing, I don’t think they scored when we had our starters in and even when we put in the backups they didn’t really score much then, and the offence did their thing like usual,” said Phillips, 17, whose twin brother Kolby, a defensive back, was born 45 seconds before him.
