Yorkton's football reputation has always been built on hard working players and hard working teams that have been hanging with the biggest schools in the province ever since the Yorkton Regional High School joined the ranks of the Regina Intercollegiate Football League before recently moving to the Moose Jaw league where the Raider Gridders have featured in two city championships in their two seasons in the league.
However, since the introduction of Atom, Peewee and Bantam programs under the Yorkton Minor Football umbrella the quality of football in Yorkton has increased and so has the number of players who will be playing at the next level in either the CIS on scholarships or at the Canadian Junior Football League level looking to make the jump to the CFL while representing the city.
This CIS/CJFL season will feature more Yorkton products as ever before as Layne Hull (Okanagan Sun, CJFL), Daniel Benner (Calgary Colts, CJFL), Paul Toth (Regina Thunder, CJFL), Michael Kozushka (University of Alberta, CIS), Grey McKen (University of Regina, CIS), Eddie Schramm (University of Regina, CIS) and Dalton Fichtner (University of Regina, CIS) will all be playing at the next level following successful careers with the YRHS Raiders and Yorkton Minor Football. Numbers that prove the program that was built over the past decade is producing more success year by year, something that is also shown with the YRHS' two straight trips to their league championship game.
Some players like Hull, Benner and Toth are veterans at the next level now with multiple seasons in the CJFL under their belt while Fichtner is now a second year player with the University of Regina after winning Player of the Year honours in the MJHSFL in his senior year with the Raiders while the likes of Kozushka, McKen and Schramm are all new faces at the CIS level from the Raiders 2013 squad who are hoping to make an impact in the college game after successful years within the Yorkton program.
Yorkton Minor Football President and head coach of the YRHS Raiders Roby Sharpe mentioned that now thanks to the youth program getting kids in the game at the same time hockey, baseball, or soccer programs would get children into the game has helped put Yorkton on the map with more and more collegiate/CJFL players coming from the city as the YMF program continues to develop.
"There have been players coming out of Yorkton and playing in either the CJFL or the CIS for years now because there have been plenty of amazing football players to come out of the city except now there are more and more players year after year helping put Yorkton on the Canadian football map," says Sharpe.
"When you look at the list of teams, players from Yorkton are playing for this season it is all over Western Canada and we have players who are playing key roles on those teams in some of those places so it makes me feel proud that we have Yorkton players in nearly every place to play in the West."
Sharpe also mentions that this season the Raiders again have a crop of talents that could play at the next level if they want to, mentioning that the likes of Darius Haberstock, Zach Kais, Peter Kozushka, Alex Popoff, and Riley McGill amongst others all have the potential to be players who go from high school to post-secondary football careers.
"When you look at our roster there are a lot of guys who can potentially make the next jump and should interest teams at the next level this season," says Sharpe who added that school grades and hard work are equally as important as talent. "Keeping their marks high and working hard in the weight room as well as in practice play a big role in making goals to play football at the next level a reality but we have a good group of kids so the number of players we have at the next level should continue to grow in the near future."
Talking about how beneficial the YMF program has been to building the game in Yorkton, Sharpe mentioned that for many years the earliest football players would get to play the game in the city was either in Grade 8 or Grade 9 as a member of either the Jr. Raiders (12 man) or Jr. Saints (9 man) high school programs. Now there are three levels of 12 man football to play in Yorkton, giving kids the same advantages and opportunities to play that larger centres have had for years.
"Going from getting players playing football for the first time when they are basically in high school to having them playing the game from a younger age at a high level is important because football is a game that involves a lot of fundamentals and understanding of different concepts," mentioned Sharpe. "Now when players get to the high school level they know 12 man football and where to be on the football field, how to tackle correctly as well as safely and also know how to work hard in practice as part of a team which is something that not only helps players succeed but also to enjoy the game more because they are in a position to do well early on."
New quarterback Nick Payne is an example that Roby Sharpe brings up when talking about how the YMF program has changed the way players can develop in Yorkton with the ability to play from a younger age to hone their skills and fundamentals.
"When you look at Nick Payne he is a player who instead of having to learn quarterback right at the Bantam level with a Jr. team was able to play 12 man football at quarterback for extra seasons at the Peewee level as well as in Bantam which has helped his development because he is playing a position that he has learned for extra years he may not have been able to in the past which is why the program is so great."
YRHS offensive coordinator and head coach of the Atom Gridders of the YMF Jason Boyda mentions that the minor program has played a huge role in the recent success of the YRHS Raiders program with players who are the first products of early development becoming key players as of late. Giving the high school program players that are more ready to play which has allowed them to avoid having to rebuild.
"It is a saying that we have now with the YMF program developing such talented kids in that we don't rebuild, we reload on talented players because these players now what it takes to win and know how to play the game thanks to playing Peewee, Bantam 12 man in the Regina league which does so much good for development," adds Boyda. "The Regina league is so good for kids who want to play minor football and the fact that Yorkton has teams in every level in the league is something that we feel is a great opportunity for kids to play a game that they enjoy to play at the same level as any city in the province even if they don't live in Regina or Saskatoon."
When talking about the number of players that are playing at the next level through either the YRHS or the YMF program, Boyda takes great pride in seeing players that he mentioned have put in the work to get where they are today that some may not realize from an outside glance.
"Anytime you see somebody you watched put in the work to achieve their goal or dream and get an opportunity to either earn an education or a chance to keep playing the game they love at the next level is special and is apart of why I love coaching so much," says Boyda. "These players all worked hard in the classroom, the weight room, at practice, after practice and beyond to get where they are so I am incredibly happy to see so many of them continuing to play the game that they love and continue with their dreams of playing football after high school."
With Yorkton's minor football tradition continuing to grow it is clear that football is not only getting more and more popular in an area that has always loved the game thanks to Saskatchewan's love of the Roughriders, but also developing talents that may one day put the city on the map as one of the prairie's biggest football hotbeds. Slowly developing a pipeline for programs across Western Canada looking for the top high school talents in the country, Yorkton's football success story is continuing to grow each year thanks in part to the new YMF tradition. With more and more players from the city pursuing their football dreams each year, don't be shocked if one day Yorkton has a strong contingent of players at all levels of the game including in the CFL.
