The 2023 football season will go down in the history books for Weyburn Comprehensive School. The team went undefeated in the regular season and playoffs on their way to their second 5A 12-man football provincial title in three years. They would dominate their opponents, with the closest any opponent getting was 17 points in a preseason game against Winnipeg’s Grant Park. The success also had the team ranked as the top small-school team in the entire country by Canadian Football Chat.
While the school is coming in with the highs of an extremely successful season, head coach Jody Kerr said this year’s team won’t be expecting success based on what they accomplished last year.
“It’s something that’s going to be special for everybody that’s been involved,” Kerr said. “We always go in and we make sure that the talk as soon as we start has nothing to do with the day before, the year before, the couple years before; that each team coming in has to create its own identity.”
This will be the message carried when the first practices of the 2024 season start on August 24th. The day will start a busy stretch for the Eagles as they get set for their first test of the year – an exhibition game against the 6A 12-man provincial champions, the Miller Marauders from Regina.
“We want to make sure that all the kids are ready to be on the field, so when we start up on the 24th, we got one (practice) that day, along with some registration and logistics and things to get done,” said Kerr as he detailed the schedule for the week. “Sunday, we’ll go twice and then Monday through Thursday, we’ll have our regular kind of evening practice, but we’re going to have some in-classroom sessions.”
Those in-class sessions are perhaps some of the most important parts of the planning for a football team. The systems are taught to the players there and will then be put into practice on the field itself. While the playbooks may not be as extensive as you might see with a professional team like the Saskatchewan Roughriders, or even a collegiate team like the University of Regina Rams, it is still the building blocks of success on the field. Those playbooks, though, aren’t set in stone and continue to adapt every week.
“We try to have some base things in at the beginning,” Kerr explained. “Every team has to have their base programs, their base formations, and their base plays in, and the majority of our football program is about weekly adjustments. We have our base booklet in, and it’s going to have X amount of plays and X amount of formations, and stuff like that, but for the most part, we’re going to watch our opponents on film and see what they do in the past and what they do this year.”
Part of the planning in the off-season and the early weeks of the regular season also includes adapting based on the personnel at hand. Unlike the collegiate, junior, and professional ranks, there is more turnover year to year at the high school level. This means while some of the systems from the previous year can be reused, it is all about making it unique for the players that are on the team now, and seeing how the planning can be adapted based on their skill sets. Kerr said that is one of the things they take away from spring camp each year – the strengths and weaknesses of the team and how those sets can be developed.
The game against Miller on August 30th will be a big match-up in the eyes of the football community across the province as well. While both teams did have a lot of players graduate, they are still seen as the top teams in the province based on where they finished last year.
“I think it’s a good thing for football in Saskatchewan, because we have separate leagues with our 5A and 6A leagues for high school, and both playing 12 men, and you know it’s a good way to show everybody that there really is no difference between those two leagues,” Kerr highlighted. “There’s talent, there’s great coaching, there’s good kids on the field, and I think it’s just going to be a good way for both teams to start.”
The coach added he expects it to be a physical, top-quality game between two teams that have a lot of pride, and neither is used to losing in recent years.
“Having them come down to Darold Kot is just a bonus for us, and having a good quality kind of exhibition game to kick us off is kind of exciting for us, and we look forward to having them.”
The game on August 30th will kick off at 4:30 p.m. at Darold Kot Field. There is no admission for the game, and the community is invited to come out to cheer on the Eagles as they start their 2024 campaign.