The Estevan Elecs football team will have a very good future indeed if their younger players continue on their successful track.
Hunter Eagles won the team's most valuable player award and top offensive player — no mean feat for a Grade 9 in his first year of high school football.
“I was hoping to get a little bit (of playing time) but I wasn't expecting to get nearly as much as I got,” said Eagles, who scored 50 of the team's 82 points on the season through touchdowns and conversions and averaged 79 yards rushing and 60 yards receiving per game. “I was expecting to get at least one side of the ball.”
By the midway point of the season, Eagles played offense, defence and some special teams, rarely leaving the field.
“I love it,” he said. “I wouldn't have it any other way.”
The game was more fast paced than bantam football but Eagles is excited to see what will go on in the future with the Elecs.
“We should have a better season in 2018 with all the new kids that are now experienced,” he said. “We should have a fairly good team next year.”
The group that Elecs head coach Mark Schott led in 2017 lacked that kind of experience and struggled early with putting the right effort forward. A whopping 24 players coming into the season had never played high school football before and 14 players hadn't played any level of football before.
“(I'll remember) the fact that our group, despite being inexperienced, were really eager to get to practice and work hard to get better,” Schott said. “That's really encouraging as a coach when you have a group that does that, and even moreso when they're still young.”
The good play shown by many of the newer Elecs bodes well for the team's future.
“We're excited to have Hunter (Eagles) the next three years,” said Schott. “We're really happy that he's the type of person and player that he is. He's not only a great player but he's a great teammate. That's really important.”
The defensive player of the year was Grade 11 Triston Sorenson, a ball hawk who nabbed five interceptions on the season.
The team's rookies of the year were James Knibbs and Nigel Mack, while Colten Kolakowski was the Elecs special teams player of the year. Jarod Buick was the lineman of the year and Buick and Eric Swirski were the co-winners of the Ironman Award. The Who Are We?/Bryan Illerbrun Award was won by Carsen Ford, Dylan Mann, Carter Davenport and Erik Gusikoski and the Players' Choice Award was nabbed by Davenport.
