NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Medicine Hat Mohawks receiver Tessera Veurink evades a tackle during a high school football jamboree game against the Crescent Heights Vikings at the Methanex Bowl on Thursday.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
For every champion the Hat High Mohawks lose in the off-season, they’ll be gaining another.
The Mohawks are coming off their fifth straight Rangeland Football Conference championship and will be parting ways with a number of key faces from last year’s roster, but head coach Quinn Skelton says they’ll have no trouble competing thanks to a double-digit crop of incoming bantam provincial champions from the Medicine Hat Hawks.
“We’re pretty lucky. Our rebuild is kind of a reload,” Skelton said Thursday at the Medicine Hat high school football jamboree, featuring the Crescent Heights Vikings and WR Myers Rebels. “We graduated some fantastic kids and a lot of them are playing at the university level too, but we’ve inherited a really great group of kids. They won provincials in Grade 9 and there are a couple other new recruits who have joined that group and we’re super excited with the young ones we have right now. We’re young, but pretty talented.”
The Medicine Hat Hawks rallied to a perfect season on the gridiron after winning the bantam Rangeland title then keeping their streak alive all the way to a provincial championship. The bulk of that roster will making the move to Hat High next season, including receiver Tessema Veurink, brothers Aayden and Dylan Callan and quarterback Brodie Fink – penciled in to start behind centre next season.
“He’s doing really well,” said Skelton. “The Callan brothers are awesome, Tessema is doing great and a couple of the linemen are starting.”
Notable names leaving the Mohawks over the summer include offensive tackle Connor Taylor, receiver Lachlan Hardiker, tight end Josh Howe, linebacker Justin Maser – all of whom will play with the University of Regina Rams next season – and receiver Zach Campbell, who will move on to play with the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
While their absences will leave some sizeable holes in the lineup, Skelton says he expects his new crop of recruits to step into important starting roles when the season kicks off in the fall.
“We’ll have probably half a dozen of those Grade 9s move in and battle for starting spots, and probably take them,” said Skelton. “They’re going to do well.”
Skelton added the incoming group seems to eat, sleep and breathe football, as they’ll often convene prior to practice to get started early and can always be found together as a group.
“They come to practice early all the time and fool around outside the clubhouse on the field waiting to get to practice,” said Skelton. “It’s the same group of kids that wandered down the street from Alexandra. They’ve been there horsing around and throwing balls around just waiting to get practice started. They’re just that type of kids and we’re seeing nothing different out of them now.”
Fink admits the pressure of entering his high school career as a starting quarterback is undeniable, but a strong framework of current and future teammates have been making his transition easier.
“When we’re running plays that we ran last year, it’s just my bread and butter. It’s good to have people that I already know,” he said. “We’re going to keep the mindset that we want to do what we did last season, but if it doesn’t happen we’re not going to be disappointed. Obviously we’d like that to happen, but right now we’ll see.”
