ALBERTA NEWSPAPER GROUP PHOTO JUSTIN SEWARD Lloyd Bray poses in the Crescent Heights Vikings locker room with his Parkside Pythons hat. Bray, who helped found the Pythons bantam football team, is coaching with the Vikings this season.
Justin Seward
Alberta Newspaper Group
For the first time in 22 years, longtime Parkside Pythons football coach Lloyd Bray will be not on the team’s sidelines.
Bray, who helped start the Pythons back in 1996, is now the offensive coordinator for the Crescent Heights Vikings.
“Coach (Dustin) Ressler stepped down here at Crescent Heights and the opportunity came up,” said Bray. “My son Carter is in Grade 12. I thought I’d switch over and help out for a year here.”
Bray previously coached at Crescent Heights for seven years before he and then Parkside School principal Bob Wickens started the Pythons program. There was a desire at Parkside at the time where bantam aged kids needed more than just classroom studies.
“Some of these kids respond to contact sports,” he said.
“The regimentations and just the excitement that goes along with it. I mean it keeps kids in school. If they’re not doing school properly then they’re not allowed to play football. It’s a carrot. It gives them incentive to stay in school, work hard and they get the privilege of playing football.”
It was when the coaches gelled for a few years and observed other teams in the league that a winning formula was formed.
That success got the snakes a couple trips to the provincial final, multiple appearances in the south final and a dozen city championships.
“It’s been successful in terms of games,” said Bray. “But the relationships you build with the coaches and the players. Those last forever.”
The decision to move back to the high school ranks was not easy.
“I had plans to stay there until my retirement and keep the whole thing going,” said Bray. “I was surrounded by a bunch of really great coaches over there. I knew if I had left it’s just going to continue to be a good team. I didn’t feel I was leaving the team high and dry.
“Nathan Kobley took over as head coach over at Parkside. It was difficult but at the same time I wanted to help out my own son.”
Bray plans to be at every Pythons game and still keeps in contact with most of the players.
Note: The headline to this story has been updated to correct that Bray is now with the Crescent Heights Vikings, not the Hat High Mohawks as originally stated. The News apologizes for the error.
