The game plan for the St. Albert Storm is to repeat as playoff champions but in a higher division than last year’s tier III triumph in the midget spring league.
“Our goal is to be playing for a tier I championship,” said head coach Chad Hill. “Obviously we want every player who plays to be that much better for their season in the fall but we also want to be competitive. We want to treat this as a competitive league and our goal is to obviously win.”
Last year’s team of Grade 9, 10 and 11 players lost four out of five games in the tier I regular season en route to a 3-4 overall record as the tier III playoff winners. In the final they sacked the Sherwood Park Wolverines 27-7.
“Ending your season on a win is always very positive,” said Hill, the first lieutenant under field general Mark Dobko on the Storm’s coaching staff in 2009. “So far the attitude is right from the players. Some spring teams run into problems where the game and the team is taken not as seriously as it is in the fall. I understand the spring is a busy time and some players have other sports they are doing as well, but we want to make this team competitive and make it important that if you’re playing for this team you’re committed to this team. It’s not show up when you can, it’s about showing up and giving everything you have for this team.”
The Storm’s best season in the Capital District Minor Football Association was their inaugural 4-3 campaign as the 2006 tier I finalists.
Two years ago the Storm fielded two teams in tier I and II that combined to finish 2-9 overall, as the tier I squad failed to win a game.
This year the Storm will huddle up again in tier I. If they finish bottom two in the six-team standings like last year they will be relegated into the tier III playoff bracket.
Hill expects to dress 42 to 45 players when league play kicks off in early April. Midget rosters are limited to a league-mandated maximum. There are also limits to the maximum number of Grade 11s and a minimum number of required Grade 9s and 10s for each team.
As of Tuesday, Hill had 53 players trying out for the Storm during workouts at Bellerose Composite High School. They include players from the junior and senior St. Albert High Skyhawks and Bellerose Bulldogs programs in the metro Edmonton high school league, plus graduating Grade 9 bantams.
“The boys enjoy it when they get to play together with other players on the St. Albert teams. I know as a coach I really like working with the coaches and players from all the teams,” said Hill, who has coached the junior and senior Bulldogs since 2008 and has guided the fortunes of the junior Dawgs since 2005.
“As for the Grade 9 kids coming up it’s great to see what they can do. I’ve noticed that the overwhelming majority of players that played Storm in Grade 9 go on to a successful Grade 10 season where if they’re not standouts they’re solid players on their junior teams.”
The Bellerose teacher expects the Storm defence will carry the team while the offence gets up to speed with its play calling and execution.
“Obviously defences are ahead of the offences in spring league and our defence should be strong. We have some very good athletes on the defence. We’re not big but we have some talent, with lots of Grade 11s and veteran guys on the defence,” said Hill, who called the shots for a very young tier II Storm team in 2008 that finished 2-5 as the tier III playoff consolation finalists. “On offence we have some terrific athletes with [Mike] Spagnolo, [Tayler] White and [Devin] Kondro. They will anchor the offence.”
Skyhawks’ linebacker Tanner Doll was also one of five conditional invitees injured at the time of the testing but will be allowed to continue pending recovery and future testing.
Doll and Spagnolo were the 2009 co-rookies of the year for the senior Skyhawks.
Andresen was the defensive player of the year for the senior Bulldogs in 2009 and Schapansky was the team’s unsung hero.
White, a Grade 11 Bulldog who attends Sturgeon Composite High School, is a quarterback who can play a variety of positions on both sides of the ball. He was the senior Bulldogs’ rookie of the year in 2009.
Kondro, a punishing fullback in Grade 11 at Sturgeon, was voted the senior Bulldogs’ most valuable player in 2008 and 2009.
As for practicing on the artificial turf at Riel field, Tuesday’s scheduled session was cancelled because the city hadn’t give its stamp of approval for the Storm to use the facility in the wake of re-erecting the new scoreboard.
“We’ve been practicing indoors at Bellerose [since mid-February] and you get to see sort of the athletic ability of the boys but football is a game that requires contact and we were hoping tonight to get out here on the field and see them actually do some full-out hitting and contact and real football. You can’t play football in a gymnasium,” said Hill, who only learned about the cancelled practice “very late in the afternoon” on Tuesday.
“The boys are disappointed. They wanted to be out here tonight so hopefully Wednesday we’ll be really able to kick it up so we can get started outdoors.”
