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Vikings hold football banquet

Nov 17, 2016 | 9:18 AM

The North Battleford Comprehensive High School football team held its annual end of season banquet on Wednesday evening where graduating linebacker Anson Landrie took home most valuable player honours.

“It’s a really great feeling. It’s a privilege,” Landrie said. “I’ll miss the team most. They’re great guys and I think they’ll do better in the future.”

There were four other senior awards handed out.

Graduating player Luciano Jolly took home the “True Viking” award, given to the player who is both a leader off the field and a key contributor on it. Grade 10 tailback J.T. Lamb took home the “undergrad of the year,” awarded to the top player not in Grade 12. Meanwhile, the lineman of the year award went to Jordan Delorme, who will also be graduating in the spring, and the backfielder of the year was given to Grade 11 Zach Wolfe.

Head coach Mike Humenny said having a banquet separate from the year-end awards is important because it gives the junior Vikings an example of what to strive for.

“It’s mainly geared towards the senior players,” Humenny said. “And I like our junior players and parents to recognize that, so it turns into something that they strive to work towards and become senior Vikings and be contributors and good citizens at our school.”

For years, the coaching staff has been stressing more than just football. They’ve talked about the importance of going to class and doing things correctly in school as well.

“They’ve got to be students first and football comes second,” Humenny said. “We want them to leave as positive citizens and not just as good players.

“[For] a lot of them, sometimes it’s difficult to figure that out but I think a lot of them are starting to get it. We’re really proud of the guys here tonight, the Grade 12’s.”

Humenny also announced that Vikings J.T. Lamb, Apete Tuiloma, and Zack Weber will represent the province as part of a U-17 team headed to the International Bowl in Arlington, Texas in January, 2017.

There were no tryouts held for the U-17 team. Instead, selections were made simply on coaches recommendations. Because the coaching staff is mostly from Regina and Saskatoon, that is where most of the team was picked from, but Humenny was asked earlier this season to recommend any of his players.

“Having those three guys represent us, that’s going to be a great opportunity,” Humenny said. “I gave a glowing recommendation for all [three] of them – as well as some others that we have on our team – but unfortunately you can’t take them all.

“Those three guys have all played with our NorthSask U-16 provincial team and they’re getting an awesome opportunity to go down South and play against what I would consider to be as good competition as you can get on the continent.”

The tournament will be played under American football rules, but Hemenny added he thinks they’ll be able to adapt quite well.

The Vikings had a solid season this year, finishing the regular season with a 4-2 record before narrowly falling in their opening playoff game to the Marion Graham Falcons, 32-20.

Next year, starting quarterback Damon Dutton returns for his senior year, along with key offensive players Zach Wolfe and Lamb.

The 11 graduating players who won’t be returning are: Denny Blackstar, Keegan Chartier, Jordan Delorme, Luciano Jolly, Anson Landrie, Dawson Lehman, Mitchell Lascelle, Shayne McInnes, Cole Toovey, Mathew Wahobin, and Brantley Wasmuth.

 

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11