Mitch Calvert
Mulligan, please.
The Muskie football team opened the Winnipeg High School Football League season with a game they’d soon like to forget in a 44-0 romp at the hands of the host Kenora Broncos on Friday.
The black-and-gold will hope to make that one-sided defeat a distant memory when they host the Vincent Massey Trojans in their annual Homecoming game this Friday (Sept. 18) at 1 p.m. at Muskie Field.
“We were in places where we were supposed to be but we just didn’t execute,” Muskie head coach Dean Bruyere said. “Our tackling was poor, our blocking assignments weren’t picked up.
“We’re working on things this week and hopefully Kenora will roll over their next opponent because that would give us a clear indication that we played one of the better teams in the league,” Bruyere added.
“That’s one of the best Kenora teams I’ve ever seen, and I can’t believe for the life of me that Dryden beat them [in exhibition play earlier this month].
“There’s been major improvements over the last few weeks, but that was our first game and there were lots of deers in the headlights,” Bruyere admitted.
“I thought we were in pretty good shape [in practice], but if Kenora loses big [in their next game], we could be in for a long season.”
The Muskies looked every bit the young and inexperienced team they are as Broncos’ quarterback Jeff Trudeau dissected the Fort High secondary through the air.
“They passed on us, got behind us a few times,” Muskie defensive co-ordinator Bob Whitburn noted. “They’ve got a couple receivers and their quarterback has a decent arm.
“Smart kid, puts the ball right where he has to.”
Aside from a group of about a half-dozen seniors, most of the Muskies’ roster still is trying to adjust to in-game situations with little to no prior experience to draw from.
“Some of the kids have never played the game before so it was a learning experience,” Whitburn said. “The biggest thing was we had them [Kenora] in the backfield for losses but we weren’t wrapping up our tackles.”
The theme was the same on the offensive side of the ball, with a general lack of execution costing the Muskies chances to score.
“We had dropped balls deep over the middle that could’ve led to big gains, [but] the receivers just dropped the ball,” Muskie offensive co-ordinator Andrew George recounted.
“You can coach catching the ball all you want, but it’s up to [the receivers] to have the focus to actually do it in a game,” he stressed.
“All in all, we had some issues with focus, I don’t think we were intense enough. But by the same token, we had guys out there starting who don’t know how a football game works,” George added.
“They didn’t know when offence and defence went out, how special teams works, and the rules.
“They’ve never seen a game before and they are thrown in there because they’re decent athletes and told to go and play,” George remarked. “It’s good for them to experience that and we’ll be a better team because of it, [but] we didn’t expect to clean house this year.
“A lot of guys are just learning.”
George said an inexperienced group of linemen were exposed in the trenches—limiting the success of the team’s running game, as well.
“We do have some talented guys, but we don’t have a running back like Mason McKay [last year] or a Terry Carmody, who can rip apart through 12 guys,” George admitted.
“We have running backs who are going to find the holes and take four-six yards when they get it, and maybe break one when they get a chance or run over a linebacker,” he noted.
“But [Tyler Abma and Andre Valenzuela] were in their first games playing running back, so there’s going to be some growing pains.”
George did say the level of intensity needs to be brought up a notch or two in practice so it naturally transfers over to games.
“I think practice has to be a lot more intense,” he said. “We went a few days without pads and we should’ve been in pads all week, and I’ll take the blame for that.
“With a young team, it would help with the focus to have intense practices,” George reasoned. “I think you can go through those sort of practices with a more experienced, veteran team, [but] we have to crackdown on the focus and get these guys ready to play.”
Despite the disappointing result, the Muskie coaching staff is confident this group can turn things around in short order.
“I’m confident with the group we have,” George insisted. “We’re trying to reshape this program and get the intensity back.
“We’re trying to do the things that have been lacking in recent years, and the good thing is we’re doing it with some new guys so they don’t know the old way,” he added.
“By mid-season, I think these guys will have enough experience to make some noise.”
“It’s just repetition with this sport,” echoed Bruyere. “You just keeping pounding the same thing over and over until they can do it in their sleep.
“To tell you the truth, I haven’t been very consistent with coaching the linemen,” Bruyere admitted. “There’s a number of reasons, but no excuses, I have to get my head back into this thing.
“I was hoping everyone else would pick up the slack and they were for a while, but some guys have left now so I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do,” he noted.
The black-and-gold now turn their attention to the Vincent Massey Trojans of Winnipeg, who are coming off a 32-6 win over the Portage Collegiate Trojans in their season-opener last week.
“I looked at them and they look big, they look like they execute, and we’ll have to play better than we did last Friday, obviously,” Bruyere said.
“Hopefully we’ll be better this week,” he added. “All you can do is get them ready as best you can, and we’ve got to be realistic.
“Going into this season, we knew we were going to be thin on numbers and experience, especially experience, which is very important in this league.
“We could’ve gone into that bottom tier [of the WHSFL] and probably relaxed for a couple years, but you never know,” Bruyere reasoned. “You’re fearful if you go down there, you’ll never get back out.”
