The St. Paul Lions got back onto the gridiron on Saturday afternoon as they hosted the team’s annual jamboree, welcoming teams from Ardrossan, Bonnyville and Drumheller.
“We performed really well. We won two and lost one although we don’t really worry or even keep score to tell you the truth,” said Lions coach Todd Tanasichuk. “I didn’t think we had lost one and I didn’t think we had won another one, I thought it ended in a tie . . . What we saw is that our offense performed really well. Brenden McKay was absolutely outstanding, many of our players were.”
While the Lions narrowly dropped the opening game to Ardrossan, 6-5, they returned back to the field with a 7-2 victory over Drumheller.
“It was quite surprising because Drumheller is the defending Tier 4 provincial champ,” he said. “We played them really well although we know they were missing a number of their kids . . . for whatever reason they were missing probably 10 of their key players so its hard to gauge how well you actually did, but as far taking advantage of that, if that’s the way it is then you want to take advantage of that and I thought we did.”
The Lions then took on the neighbouring Bonnyville Voyaguers in a closely contested 4-3 victory that saw the Lions crop of rookies put their skills to the test.
“We had rookies in most of the game. So that was good, that we could still compete with them with just our young guys in the game,” Tanasichuk said. “We’ve got some guys that we know for sure are ready to play at the high school level already and showed that they can do that. We’ve got some guys that aren’t ready but showed improvement over the day and over the week, so that was good to see.”
Tanasichuk said that the day was a great way to gauge the abilities of the new Lions players, and to get them involved with the faster paced and harder hitting high school game.
“As a coach you’re gauging everybody and if they’re getting any better. Honestly, I think on Saturday I said to the boys, that I saw good things out of each and every player,” he said. “We had some boys that initially struggled but as they day progressed they made something happen, either a sack or they got an interception, so I could see that they were picking it up.”
The Lions will travel to Edmonton this weekend for University of Alberta 7 on 7 Bair Attack Touch Football Tournament. The weekend will see the Lions passing game put to the test, as no running plays or linebackers will be allowed in the pad-less touch football tournament.
“We’re going down there and we’re playing against some absolutely great football teams,” he said. “A lot of the better Tier 1 teams in our province are going to be there, so we don’t know how we’re going to perform compared to them, but it’s a great opportuinity for our kids to be seen by the university coaches and the junior coaches that will be there.”
