NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
The Crescent Heights Vikings senior football team runs through drills Wednesday afternoon at the high school ahead of their RFC matchup Friday at the Methanex Bowl against the Medicine Hat High Hawks.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Crescent Heights Vikings senior football team won’t be one to back down from a challenge this season.
The Vikings enter the 2023 Rangeland Football Conference season under first-year head coach Anthony Anderson, who joins the senior team after coaching the JV Vikings last season. Having coached a number of his senior players last year has only made his transition easier.
“This Grade 10 group we have is fairly small, but a few of the guys who were first years last year decided to stick it out and play again this year,” Anderson said. “I’ve seen massive improvements in them which is really cool to see that transition from being a junior bantam player where you’re still a little bit emotionally and physically underdeveloped, to later on in the teenage years and starting to see them grow up and develop.”
He also credits the Vikings’ returning core, parents and booster club for making the transition easier as they get the season underway. The Vikings’ Grade 12 athletes have taken a leadership role that has not only impressed their new coach but has made his job easier.
“You can’t coach a lot of things, leadership, hard work, because I can make them football players on the field but I can’t make them leaders, that comes within,” Anderson said. “That makes my job tremendously easier and it’s really good to see. Even at the start of the year in spring camp when I was still coaching for the juniors, we combined practice of the two and right away some of the senior high guys, when we brought everybody together, we had the junior high sitting on one end, we had the seniors sitting on the other end when we were giving them a team talk. Some of these Grade 12s actually went and sat with the junior high guys, so that was so great to see.”
He says the strength of their team this year will be their work ethic, which starts at the top with the Grade 12s and has worked its way through the roster.
The Vikings open their RFC season Friday when they face off against the Medicine Hat High Hawks at the Methanex Bowl. They enter that contest off a season opening 30-0 loss against Taber last week, a game Anderson says is an early stepping stone.
“There were a lot of positives we saw in the game, with a new coaching staff and with new offensive and defensive schemes, it takes time,” Anderson said. “It takes a lot of time for the players to become accustomed to it and we definitely did see major improvements throughout the first couple of weeks. So it’s just a matter of just getting everything to click right.”
Heading into the contest against cross-city rivals, who are coming off a 21-20 loss last Friday against Regina’s LeBoldus High School, Anderson says the focus for them is just playing their game.
“With each game there’s different emotions pulling you all over the place but one thing I’ve tried to emphasize with my guys is with a new year, it’s all about the process,” Anderson said. “It’s all about the process of moving forward and getting better each day. So really, we try not to look at it as intercity rivalry, it’s just another game and we have to take care of business.”
Around the RFC
The Monsignor McCoy Colts are also in action Friday night.
They’ll travel to Brooks to face the Buffaloes to open their RFC season. The Colts are coming off 41-0 loss against the Strathmore Spartans on Aug. 26.
