Every grey cloud has a silver lining.
When the Springbank Community High School Phoenix lost the Rocky View Sports Association 3A football final 22-0 to Airdrie’s George McDougall Mustangs last October, they took home silver and renewed optimism for this season.
In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Phoenix made it to the 2013 division final. With a strong returning cast this year, the team aims to reach the final again but repeat its 3A division win of 2012. The loss of linebackers Kevin Demmers and Micah Teitz to graduation leaves noticeable gaps in the defence. But the coaching staff that helped the Cochrane Midget Lions club team win its first two games in three seasons has confidence in this year’s Springbank High School group.
“We’ve got a solid core. It’ll be interesting to see what shows up once school starts. As far as the core goes, this group of guys is going to be good on both sides of the ball,” said Jud Graham, Springbank line coach who coached the Midget Lions to two Calgary Area Midget Football Association playoff wins in May.
“I think the reps definitely help,” he said of players who took part in Lions spring-league ball. “I think it’s going to help a little bit that we’ll have a little bit of the stuff here that we had there. That’s going to help a little bit.”
Many of the players who helped the Lions to those rare victories are on the field at Springbank training camp. As usual, early camp sessions are thin on players as 14 kids were dressed for the Phoenix’s fourth day of fall camp Aug. 25 in Springbank. The team will more than double its player roster when school starts. Running back Makani Clapson, quarterback Egan Hamill and linebacker Graham Leitch are just a few of the Phoenix senior classmen boasting extra reps with Cochrane’s spring-league football program.
“I actually think we have more consistency throughout the lineup this year,” said Phoenix head coach Tony Lucas, spied on the Midget Lions sideline alongside Graham and former Phoenix cardiac QB Levi Jackson. “The kids who’ve been out so far have been good.”
Adding to the U.S. flavour of the school is Grade 12 quarterback Jesse Shonecker. From Texas, he joins Hawaiian running back Clapson on the Phoenix and will play alongside Hamill,
Last season’s second-place finish was the first season in three the Phoenix hadn’t won the Rocky View Schools Athletic Association 3A title. The Phoenix appear ready to rise to the occasion to get there once again.
