Nearly 20 strong teenage boys are running straight for Ryan Karakochuk.
Karakochuk lowers his arm, the one holding a football. The boys run in reverse. When he points down with the pigskin, the boys hit the ground.
After several more forward and reverse manoeuvres across the grassy field, one of the boys is reaching exhaustion.
“Really?!” he yells to Karakochuk.
“Really,” Karakochuk replies as the drill continues.
Karakochuk knows that in football, players must learn to rise to the challenge. And the Creighton Kodiaks head coach is well aware that these two-time league champions return to the field this week absent 10 key players from last year, including their quarterback, running back and entire offensive line.
“Our main goal this year, in all honesty, is to get all of our younger guys as much experience as we can and to learn about the game of football,” he says in an interview. “But at the same time, we have guys on our team that expect to do well, and I think it’s going to be an interesting year…I really don’t know what’s going to happen. My expectation is to do our best every single game and to mature as a team each game we play, and whatever happens at the end of the year happens.”
Karakochuk also has a goal of reaching the Northern Saskatchewan Football League playoffs. Once that happens, he rightly notes, anything is possible.
If teamwork and camaraderie are essential to a team’s success, which they certainly are, then the Kodiaks look well placed to be competitive this season.
In observing a team practice last week, the young athletes’ support for one another was palpable. Players exuded a sense of we’re-in-this-togetherness. They cracked jokes and shared advice. They called each other nicknames such as Goldilocks and
Hay Bales.
“We’ve got nicknames for everybody,” says team captain Jordan Schanowski, a linebacker who could play both offence and defence this season.
“It’s a nice, joking atmosphere.”
Schanowski says the players are extremely committed to the team this year. Sometimes guys will show up for practice 90 minutes early to throw a ball around.
Karakochuk’s rapport with the teens was effortless as he and his assistants led drills that engaged the players’ minds as much as their bodies. The head coach wasn’t going easy on his players, and they respected that.
Karakochuk – the players call him “Karky” – at different points reminded players to cradle the football like they would a baby, and to bear in mind the playing style of rival Sandy Bay.
Soon he was in the line of fire with players in full gear stampeding toward him as he hoisted a large pad to soften the blow.
How prepared are they? The Kodiaks will begin to find out tomorrow, Thursday, when they kick off the regular season in Air Ronge. It’s one of four regular season games over the next five weeks.
Since new grass was recently planted and a sprinkler system installed at Creighton’s football field, the playing surface needed time to recover. As such, scheduling allowed for just one regular season home game, on Sept. 22 against Cumberland House.
Karakochuk says the players are “pretty bummed” with the single home date, but he added the Town of Creighton put a lot of money into the field and that it would be a disservice to tear up the grass.
Of course there could be more home games if the Kodiaks make the playoffs. Schanowski, the new captain, is as optimistic as anyone about the team’s chances not only to reach the post-season, but to three-peat.
“There is a lot of potential for the team to grow, and I do believe we will be able to win the Northern Saskatchewan Football League trophy again,” he says.
Schanowski, a grade 12 student, played for the Kodiaks in their inaugural season two years ago but was in Germany on a student exchange last season. His impact on the team was not forgotten.
“He’s definitely one of our best players and he’s our top leader,” says Karakochuk.
Tristan Stomp and Shaunavon Francois, two grade 11 students who have been with the team since it first hit the field, will serve as Schanowski’s assistant captains.
All told the Kodiaks have four players entering their third year with the Kodiaks. The bulk of the roster is younger and less experienced, but Karakochuk sees opportunity in that.
“We’re going to have a chance to keep the core of this team for the next two to three years, and that’s exciting,” he says.
The Northern Saskatchewan Football League will consist of nine teams this season, down one from last season since Buffalo Narrows will not return. The Kodiaks won the league championship, the Ralph Pilz Trophy, in both 2014 and 2015.
Kodiaks schedule
Thursday, Sept. 8
@ Air Ronge
Thursday, Sept. 15
@ Sandy Bay
Thursday, Sept. 22
host Cumberland House
Thursday, Oct. 6
@ La Ronge
