NEWS PHOTO SEAN ROONEY McCoy Colts football coach Darrell Green talks to players during practice Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019 at Monsignor McCoy High School.
Talent may be a good starting point for the upcoming high school football season, but the McCoy Colts know confidence will be as important as anything this fall.
So as they go in to an exhibition matchup against Chinook Friday at Lethbridge, the plan isn’t just to continue learning – it’s to know what they’ve learned and apply it.
“We usually have a little more time to prepare but coach Grass really wants us to get to it, know what it’s like to get hit by some bigger teams here,” said Grade 11 running back Toras Brooks-Kirsch. “Going into this year, having new coaches, they want us to win, they want us to succeed.
“I’m really excited.”
Brooks-Kirsch was on a winning team when he played bantam, which made last season’s winless record as a Grade 10 rookie hard to take.
He doubled down on his off-season as a result, working out and playing in a couple recruiting games.
Though there aren’t a huge number of Grade 12’s on the Colts’ roster, many are returnees whose summers looked a lot like Brooks-Kirsch’s.
That has new head coach Darrell Grass optimistic about what the group can accomplish.
“We’re real impressed with the athletic ability of our kids, absolutely,” said Grass during a break in practice Wednesday. “Our biggest challenge this year will be teaching them to win, and getting their confidence up.”
Win or lose Friday, the aim is to build momentum. Next week they play at Taber, then things get real tough with a Rangeland Football Conference opener against Hat High Sept. 6.
Grass feels one key to success will be having more bodies available. He counted 28 on the roster as of Wednesday and doesn’t want his star players taking snaps on both sides of the ball all the time.
“I would really like to see no two-way players; it beats them up so bad,” said Grass. “I’ve told them all along, you need to step up. We can’t have one guy doing everything.”
That won’t happen early on as raw rookies need time to step up to the higher level of football. But the Colts are ultimately looking beyond this year, hoping to restore a program that’s seen little on-field success lately.
Try to win now is the message, but so too is win later.
“It’s going to be a program. Build success now,” said Grass. “I don’t think, in the past few years, they’ve had a lot of hope.”
As for Medicine Hat’s other two teams, Crescent Heights is also practising and has its first exhibition game set for next week at Ross Sheppard (Edmonton). Hat High won’t start official practices until this weekend, but they’re going hard with a three-a-day Saturday, and are at Lloydminster’s Holy Rosary for an exhibition game Aug. 30.
