The 2015 season is one that the John Paul II Collegiate Crusaders won’t soon forget.
Not only did they get a field of their own to call home across the street from the school, but they made it all the way to the provincial 3A nine-man football semifinal, where they fell to the Melfort Comets.
With all of that success, the Crusaders want to pick up right where they left off.
“I remember when we went a whole season without winning and that was hard on all of the guys in the dressing room,” Grade 12 running back Jacob Stynsky said. “We all knew, though, that our time was going to come and last year was a great one.
“We want to do that once again or finish even better than that. Last year was the first time that we made it out of the first round of the playoffs and it would be great to do that again. We have a great group of guys here and we’re already improving for the new season.”
Training camp for the Crusaders opened last week and featured a healthy mix of new faces and returning veterans.
Although the team lost a number of players due to graduation, head coach Bruce Yockey believes those holes will be filled fairly quickly.
“We have a number of younger players last year that played key minutes in key positions, so the losses aren’t quite as bad as they may have looked on paper,” Yockey said. “I think we’re still going to be quite strong. We might be a little thin at certain positions, but our running game should be very strong and our defence should be pretty decent.
“Those roster changes are typical of football, though. You’re going to have that breaking-in period but through each practice and through repetition the guys are getting more used to things.”
One of the major adjustments for the new players on the Crusaders roster is getting used to the challenges that come with playing nine-man football.
“Lots of times you don’t have back-up help, especially on defence,” Yockey said. “If you miss a tackle or a wide receiver gets behind you, they are gone to the end zone.”
The first real action the Crusaders will face will be in Unity Thursday afternoon when they visit the Warriors in a controlled exhibition scrimmage.
That will also be a tune-up for the first game of the regular season, which will take place at Crusaders Field on Sept. 8 at 4:30 p.m.
“It’s going to be nice to get a look at them before we face them in league play,” Stynsky said. “They are going to get a good look at us to and I think that should make for an interesting home opener and make that game a lot more competitive.”
