Jayden James of the Crescent Heights Vikings runs with the ball in the first half of the Boksteyn Bowl on Sept. 6 at the Methanex Bowl. Crescent Heights lost the fourth annual memorial game 30-14 to the Monsignor McCoy Colts.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Crescent Heights Vikings Sr. football team have an easy approach to the season.
Head coach Anthony Anderson has kept the message simple with his team, play every game like it’s the last of the season.
“You have to play as hard as you can,” Anderson said.
The Vikings kicked off their season last Friday, with a 30-14 loss to the Monsignor McCoy Colts in the fourth annual Rick Boksteyn Bowl. The Vikings had won the first three years of games, falling short in a game Anderson says McCoy deserved to win.
“McCoy last year and this year, they always come for a fight in that game, which we knew they would,” Anderson said. “When it comes down to it, McCoy played really hard.”
It was the first, full-fledged game action of the season for the Vikings. They had an exhibition scrimmage against the Medicine Hat High Hawks the week prior but the Boksteyn Bowl was the first, true game. They’ll look to bounce back this Friday when the Brooks Buffaloes come to the Methanex Bowl.
That contest, a 5 p.m. kickoff, is a home game for the Buffaloes who are hosting all of their home games at Medicine Hat’s Methanex Bowl due to the construction of a new field in Brooks.
Heading into that matchup, Anderson says they’ll look at McCoy’s win over Brooks the week prior and reflect on their own loss in preparation.
“There’s lots of things that we need to clean up and fix team wise,” Anderson said. “The loss to McCoy was a good for a lot of things in terms of seeing what we needed to work on. We’re just trying to go day by day and prepare as best we can for Brooks.”
This season is Anderson’s second at the helm of the Vikings. He says they’ve made a jump on the roster from 26 last year to 39, describing the 2024 Vikings as a committed group. He says the early season loss to McCoy gives that group, from the top to the bottom, a chance to further learn as they prepare for what they hope is a long season.
“We did a lot of training in the offseason together, so that was really good, we have a lot of talent on our team. Now it’s about trying to bring that all together and putting it together and making sure that the guys all mesh and bond together really well,” Anderson said.
“We’re really excited for this season. A loss you can take in one of two ways. You can either learn from it or you can’t, so we learned a lot of stuff from the loss. Personally, as players and as coaches, we learned quite a bit and we’re just going to use that going forward. I’m really excited for for this team and I just hope that we can bring everything together and make a good run this year.”
