Matthew Mandziuk, a grade 12 receiver/safety for the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders football team, has broken the Moose Jaw High School Football League receiving record.
After a season that saw the Raiders make it all the way to the 3A provincial championship, Mandziuk now holds the title of the highest career pass reception yardage in the league’s history.
Mandziuk played with the Raiders for all three years of his high school career. In 2015, he made 27 catches for 562 yards. In 2016, he made 24 catches for 450 yards. And in the 2017 season that just wrapped up, he made 33 catches for 691 yards. That brings his total to 84 catches for 1,703 receiving yards, averaging 20.9.
Those totals are calculated from the six regular season games the Raiders play.
YRHS Raiders’ head coach Roby Sharpe said this season’s numbers would have been even higher had they not pulled Mandziuk halfway through most regular season games to keep him healthy.
“We could have smashed that record,” said Sharpe. “We could have scored at will with him. He’s that good.”
Sharpe said he and the rest of the coaching staff didn’t think too much of the record during the season, because the main goal was to get to provincials with the team. But it was a great discovery for the team when they found out he beat the record.
“We found this out after the season. It looked like he was short, because there was a mistake, and they did the adding wrong,” said Sharpe.
Initially, the records left 100 yards off Mandziuk’s total this season, listing Mandziuk at 591 yards instead of 691. Sharpe said the record keepers had to go back and recalculate everything.
The previous holder of the record that Mandziuk broke was Sean Herperger of Balgonie, who played from 2004-2006. Mandziuk beat him by 88 yards.
“For us, it’s pretty cool,” said Sharpe. “Right now as a young guy, Matthew’s like ‘whatever’, but you don’t realize until you’re older and you look back and have that record that it’s a pretty cool thing to have.”
Mandziuk said he was obviously excited to see his name at the top of the league’s receiving list.
“I played three years for this team, and when I started I never thought I’d actually get the record,” he said. “Our quarterbacks got me the ball – Jordin Rusnack and Nick Payne – they’ve both done an exceptional job.”
The player continued to credit the rest of his team for his personal accomplishment.
“You have to think about our o-line, who has to give [the quarterbacks] the protection. We have great o-linemen,” Mandziuk added. He mentioned David Neumeier who stood out this year, and Noah Zerr who was with the Raiders two years ago.
“It’s not so much for me, but it’s for the team and stuff like that. It’s not possible without the guys,” said Mandziuk.
At the end of last season, Mandziuk said he took a look at his numbers and he knew he’d need well over 600 yards this season to break that record. He’d never had that many yards in a season, so he wasn’t sure if he was going to get there this season.
“But, it happened. I worked hard for it I guess you could say. I’m excited it happened, it’s awesome,” Mandziuk added.
With the football season a thing of the past, Mandziuk now has basketball to focus on. But because of a dislocated shoulder that he endured in the football provincial semi-final, he’ll be taking it easy until after Christmas. By then, he’s hoping to be back to game shape.
As a senior student at YRHS with next year on his mind, Mandziuk has already seen interest from several universities for him to join their roster next year – not only for football, but basketball as well. The athlete said he hasn’t made a definite decision yet, but he’s hoping to join his big brother at the University of Saskatchewan.
Wherever he ends up, it’s safe to assume that he’ll continue to be make a big impact on the both football field and the basketball court next year.
