Spears getting head start on season
The Niagara Spears varsity football team isn’t wasting any time getting ready for the upcoming football season.
Since Jan. 26, the team has been meeting every Saturday to train at Youngs Sportsplex in Welland.
“Our first game is the second week of May and Kiwanis Field opens up the first week of April,” Spears head coach Brian Duguay said. “That only gives us six weeks and we have to ensure that we have done all our safe contact (drills).
“This gives us 10 weeks of safe contact and when we go April 1, we can get into pads right away.”
The team has been getting about 70 players out for each workout.
It is the first time the team has done the individual winter training after running a winter camp where the organization integrated all the age groups together.
“A lot of the varsity players didn’t show up because we started at Square 1,” Duguay said. “Now every Saturday, they can train and start progressing into their true positions.”
The individual training require plenty of coaches and 14 have been helping out every Saturday. Many are members of the Who’s Who of football coaching in Niagara.
It is a diverse bunch of players being coached.
“We have players from a lot of the top schools and a lot of the Division 2 schools are represented,” Duguay said. “We have a lot of big boys, good athletes and some of the topnotch players in the region.”
The best of the best is required to compete against Ontario Provincial Football League teams like the London Junior Mustangs, the two-time defending champions.
“London gets all their university guys out and a lot of our university guys don’t come out,” Duguay said. “The rule I have is that I don’t want them if they are going to university and have a guaranteed spot.
“They have other obligations they have to fill and they need to train and get ready for their university teams.”
That philosophy makes it difficult to compete against a team like London which had 48 players play university ball this past season.
“That extra step of competition in practice and games adds up huge,” Duguay said.
That being said, the head coach is excited about the upcoming season and all the talent he will have at his disposal.
One of the biggest battles in training camp will come at quarterback where the three main contenders are Ethan Reid (St. Francis), Ryan James (A.N. Myer) and Devon Schiller-Cleveland (Saint Paul).
“It’s a huge battle,” Duguay said. “It probably won’t be settled until the first or second exhibition game to see how they all do. It depends on how they run the team.”
Having that much depth at quarterback is a real luxury.
“We had a couple times last year where we needed a backup quarterback and Ethan was able to step in,” he said. “With the competition we have this year, nothing is guaranteed at that spot and nothing is guaranteed at any spot.
Reid, a Grade 12 student at St. Francis who planning on returning for his 12B year, loves the competition.
“It’s good,” he said. “It pushes everyone to put their effort out and it gets the best out of everyone.”
He has been coming out for every workout session since the end of January.
“It’s great because it gets everyone out early and in shape for the season,” the 17-year-old said. “In past years, I don’t think we were prepared enough.”
Reid knows 2019 is a big year for him with Spears and at the high school level
“I want to be a consistent starter and make all the great throws and all the great reads and lead the team to a championship,” he said. “That’s the big one for me.”
Among the players trying out for the Spears are 12 offensive linemen and 12 defensive linemen. The only position where the numbers are low is linebacker where only six are in camp.
“But we have a lot of quality there,” Duguay said.
Among the players he expects to be big contributors this season are: defensive end Marley McCray (Saint Paul); defensive lineman Jesse Murphy (Saint Paul); running back Chase Bowden (Stamford); wide receiver Darcy MacIssac (Westlane); linebacker Christian Kuriata (A.N. Myer); offensive lineman Sam Gielfeldt (Centennial); and, centre Ty Bennett (Westlane).
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