After only two seasons of existence the Bonnyville Renegades are the #2 ranked peewee football team in Alberta.
The Renegades picked up a silver medal on Saturday afternoon in Sylvan Lake, after losing a tough provincial final 46-0 to the Sylvan Lake Bears.
“We are the Wheatland Football League peewee champs and we are number two in the province of Alberta in peewee football. I'll take that,” said Renegades head coach Kevin Sartain.
“I couldn't have asked for this season to go any different. The last three games, our loss and our two victories made the season that much more special and that much more exciting. It was unreal.”
The Bonnyville squad went up against a big, athletic, more experienced Sylvan Lake team on the weekend. They hung in tough against the Bears, coughing up a few big plays early and digging a hole they just couldn't come out of. At half time it was 22-0.
After the Bears tacked on another touchdown to start the third quarter, Sartain and the rest of the coaching staff decided it was time to rotate in other players.
“We have no doubt that if we kept our first string offense in we would have got a couple touchdowns and our first string defense would have held them to a lower score,” said Sartain.
“But what is more important? Putting up a couple touchdowns and keeping their score down so it doesn't look so bad back home? Or getting the players that haven't had a chance to play all season, a chance to play in the provincial championship game?”
It was an easy decision for the coaching staff. They sent all of the smaller, younger Renegades players in to get a taste of what it is like to play in a provincial final.
“It was more important that every member of our team got to play in a provincial championship game and got to know what that felt like,” said Sartain. “They are a member of our team, they helped get us there, so they all got in and played.”
According to Sartain, the coaches enjoyed watching some of their younger players lineup and play against the big, tall, athletic Sylvan Lake squad, even though more points were put up on the board.
“This Bears team was a very classy team. These big giants were laying out some of out little kids and they would just grab them and pick them up,” said Sartain. “They were a very classy team. If I am going to lose I'd rather lose to a team like that.”
The advantage Sylvan Lake had on the Renegades was experience. The town also has an Atom football program; so nine players on the peewee Bears team were in their sixth season of football. These players were going up a against a Bonnyville team that has only been in existence for two seasons.
Although they are young and relatively inexperienced, Sartain said his team has improved in “leaps and bounds” over the past two seasons.
“It is impossible to measure the amount of development we have seen in the players, not just in athleticism, but in understanding the game of football,” noted Sartain.
“We can change a play in the middle of the game. We can yell ‘instead of a 4-3 run a 3-4' and the offense will do it. They know exactly what is happening. If you are going to measure it in those terms; lets say in a measurement of 1 to 10 and we started at a 1. We are now at a 15.”
Sartain and others involved with the Renagades were amazing at just how much the community rallied around and supported the young football squad on its quest for greatness.
“This isn't a senior team. It is easy to rally around a senior team of a bunch of 17 and 18 year old kids winning games and going to championships,” said Sartain. “But for a bunch of 10, 11 and 12-year-olds to get an entire community to rally behind them and believe in them; and to get stories on the radio and in the newspaper. For them to do that is amazing.”
“They just rallied an entire northern community into believing they could be great and they did, they accomplished greatness,” added Sartain.
“I couldn't be more proud.”
