The Yorkton Minor Football (YMF) Gridders high school aged football team made up of players from all throughout Zone Four hosted Brandon’s Crocus Plains Plainsmen for their final spring football exhibition game Friday, May 22, and proved to be horrible hosts, hammering Crocus Plains 65-0.
“The boys came out firing right from the opening kickoff right to the end,” offered YMF assistant coach and offensive coordinator Jason Boyda following the game. “The nice thing is that the score is one-sided but yet we repped all of our guys equally both offensively and defensively.
“Offensively I went with our starting quarterback for three series and then our backup for three series. We also did that with the skill positions and on defence we did the same thing so what that score really speaks about is our depth that we have.”
The Gridders utilized their depth to score early and often on Friday as both quarterbacks, Yorkton’s Nick Payne and Foam Lake’s Brayden Faye, tossed multiple touchdown passes while young receivers Matthew Mandziuk and Matthew Balysky both showed why they are two of the more promising offensive talents that Yorkton Minor Football has seen in years by hauling down pass after pass, many of the highlight reel variety. “Both of those guys (Balysky and Mandziuk) could still play bantam or Junior Raiders football but with their skill set and their maturity, we decided in the offseason to pull them up and have them play senior football and they don’t look like they’re junior players at all,” said Boyda, adding that Balysky and Mandziuk, or Matthew squared as he calls them, are not only talented but also able to work with one another very easily. “One guy is running a low route and the other guy is running over the top.
“They mix it up and teams just can’t key on just one Matthew so it’s been great for us and great for me as the offensive coordinator.”
Another player that Boyda says has really shown improvement throughout the exhibition season has been linebacker-turned-defensive end and fullback Caleb Bymak, who Boyda is very familiar with. “Caleb’s a stud. I have had the pleasure to teach and coach him at Yorkdale since grade seven and he’s just a phenomenal player. He has great work ethic, he’s got great character and he’s awesome on and off the field,” mentioned Boyda. “He’s kind of like our core. We like to work around him. Everything’s centred around him whether he’s getting the ball or not and on defence we put him on the end from linebacker hoping he’ll cut the field in half and so far he’s done that.
“He’s just a phenomenal athlete and it’s a pleasure to coach him.”
With spring football now all wrapped up the players will return to their respective schools for spring camps while Boyda, Roby Sharpe and the rest of the YRHS coaches put their heads together and go back to work. “Even though this isn’t a YRHS program, we kind of use it as a game opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t,” said the offensive coordinator. “So now we’ll go back to the drawing board and analyse film and see what works and put together a little blueprint for next YRHS season.
“Fourth time’s the charm.”
