Lucas Punkari
With the 2011 Winnipeg High School Football League season less than a month away, the Fort Frances Muskies now know who they will be facing as the schedule for the Andy Currie Division officially was released this past week.
“Just taking a quick look at it, we are pretty excited about it, especially with some of those highlighted games that we have on it,” Muskie head coach Chad Canfield said.
The season will open here Friday, Sept. 9 as the Muskies welcome St. Norbert—a team coached by former Muskie and CIS player Adrian Huntley.
“It is always nice to start at home as you’ve got that familiarity factor if you do have a young team, which we probably will have this season,” Canfield explained.
“It’s just one less thing to worry about when you start the season at home.
“When you are on the road to start off the year, you have to worry about getting on the bus, travelling, getting dressed, and then playing in a strange place,” he noted.
The following Friday (Sept. 16) sees the black-and-gold, who went 1-6 a season ago, go on the road to take on Tec Voc before Fort High hosts its annual Homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 23 against Sisler.
“We had a disappointing game against Sisler last year, where some mental mistakes really handicapped us,” Canfield recalled.
“We’re hoping to give them a lot more competitive game this year at Homecoming.”
After a road game the following Friday (Sept. 30) versus Daniel Mac and a home contest on Thursday, Oct. 6 with Elmwood, the Muskies then will travel to Dryden for a special Friday night game on Oct. 14.
The black-and-gold then will wrap up the regular season on the road against St. John’s on Oct. 20.
“Dryden rented some lights for their field there, and we are really looking forward to that game as it’s something a little bit different,” Canfield said.
“We have a good relationship with the coaches in Dryden and we look forward to playing them,” he added.
With last year’s juggernaut, the Dakota Lancers, moving up in the WHSFL ladder, Canfield feels the 2011 season in the Andy Currie Division should be a very tightly-contested affair.
“Dakota was just that far ahead of everybody last year and it wasn’t fun for any of us to face them, and I’m sure it wasn’t fun for them, either,” he reasoned.
“Other than them, every other game last year that we had were pretty close games, so I expect the league to be just as tight this season.”
However, the Muskie coach already finds himself with a difficult situation before the team practice sessions begin Aug. 22.
Last year’s starting quarterback, Tobijah Gerber, has been lost for the upcoming campaign due to a torn knee ligament.
“We are really hoping to get a good showing of players right off the bat at the start of the year so that we can find a couple of young quarterbacks that are ready to do a lot of learning,” Canfield said.
“Our plan was to get a couple of guys to be groomed along for a couple of years,” he noted.
“But now our plan is to hopefully get some good young talent out for a crash course in quarterbacking, and hopefully be successful with that.”
