Members of the Crescent Heights Vikings (blue) and McCoy Colts line up together for the national anthem and a moment of silence in honour of the late Rick Boksteyn, who spent time coaching with both of the local high school programs and passed away last year.
It was a football game that Rick Boksteyn would have loved.
The two teams he helped coach at different times over 36 years, the McCoy Colts and the Crescent Heights Vikings, met Thursday night in the first ‘Boksteyn Bowl.’ A once per season game put in place to honour the memory of Boksteyn, who passed away last year.
“It was a good hard football game, there was some smackin’ and whackin’ and he would have loved it,” McCoy Colts coach Darell Grass said.
Grass’ Colts were not able to secure the victory as the Vikings led for the entirety of the game and won 14-3.
An old firefighting trophy was awarded to the Vikings as winners of this years bowl game in memory of Boksteyn’s 35 years with the Medicine Hat Fire Department.
“In honour of Rick we are super proud to bring the trophy home,” Vikings head coach Sean Davis said.
“Rick was a hard-nosed guy, a tough guy, we played a real tough game and so did McCoy, I think he would have been more than pleased with it.”
The Vikings scored the only two touchdowns of the game. Even with the offence and the win, Davis said there are still things for the Vikings to improve on.
“We definitely have our work cut out for us. We’re still missing assignments and we’re still kind of tripping over our own feet. Next week we’ll be better,” Davis said.
In the loss, Grass says he sees room for improvement for the Colts but was happy with how much better his team played this week compared to last.
“Something we need to learn as a young team is to just keep pouring it on and stop the mistakes… If we play that much better next week and we keep improving that much, we’re going to be where we want to be at the end of the season conceding for the playoffs,” Grass said.
The game was delayed early in the third quarter due to an injured Viking who was removed from the field via an ambulance. Davis said after the game that Kian Armstrong, suffered a broken wrist and that the team did not yet know the severity of his injury.
Med Hat Hawks win big
The Hat High Hawks played out of town Thursday night and won big, 47-7, against the Brooks Buffalos.
The Hawks carried momentum throughout the game, leading 30-7 at the half.
Hawks head coach Quinn Skelton says, “it was a great night for the green,” as they were able to rotate all of their players into the game.
