NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Members of the Monsignor McCoy Colts football team pose alongside members of the Medicine Hat Fire Department below the Rick Boksteyn on Boksteyn field sign at McCoy.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Monsignor McCoy Colts senior football team added another piece to the legacy of Rick Boksteyn.
The Colts showcased a new sign placed on the grounds of the football field behind the school, named the Rick Boksteyn Field in honour of the former coach and fireman. Boksteyn, who passed in 2020, helped coach the Colts and the Crescent Heights Vikings at different times over 36 years and was on the Medicine Hat Fire Department for 35 years.
Members of the Fire Department were at Colts’ practice Thursday, presenting the team’s booster club with a $3,000 cheque from their union account. Union president and MHFD Cpt. Steve Thompson says the loss of Boksteyn still hurts but they wanted to show how much the Colts efforts mean to them.
“Rick put so many hours volunteering in this community to youth sports and specifically the Colts football program, so losing him is pretty tough and we’re pretty honoured to have the school and the Colts football team have the boss’s name on this sign and our union logo forever,” Thompson said.
“You only get to name something once and here we’ve got the Rick Boksteyn Field. We felt as a union membership, we really wanted to show our appreciation. It’s a small token of our appreciation, but we just wanted to give back and give something to the football program.”
Head coach Jole Krassman, who was a God child of Boksteyn’s, says it means a lot to their team to have the sign in place and he says the donation will go a long way to continue the legacy of the Colts program that Boksteyn put in place.
“We try to keep our fees as low as possible, this is going to help keep our fees low and this is going to help us get new equipment and start to revamp the Colt logo and to revamp the Colts moving forward,” Krassman said. “This is the first of many things that are going to help out as well, we’ve had a lot of community members starting to reach out about sponsorship, we’ve got the Prairie Rose school division as well are going to make some financial contributions.
“This sign signifies the fact that good things are coming at McCoy and we’re starting to see community people coming back and saying, there’s a change happening at McCoy and it’s something special. They all understand it and see it and now we just have to put some wins on the scoreboard and we have keep grinding and moving forward.”
Krassman says the sign wouldn’t be possible without Bill Lafferty and Billy Blocks, who donated it, and Al Geib from Geib construction. He also credits the Boksteyn family for their support on the project. Members of the Boksteyn family were present Thursday, including Rick’s wife Linda who spoke to the Colts.
“He would not have liked this huge hoopla, he wouldn’t have liked this big attention, he probably would have said, ‘Get that garbage out of here, we have to play football,'” Krassman said recounting her speech.
The Colts will continue the tradition of the Boksteyn Bowl, facing off against the Vikings, in the third rendition of the memorial game, which gets underway tonight at 7 p.m. at the Methanex Bowl.
The Vikings have won the first two meetings, getting to claim an old firefighting trophy donated to commensurate the game and further enshrine Boksteyn’s legacy with the fire department and the two teams.
The Colts enter the contest off their first victory of the season, a 7-6 win over the Bert Church Chargers on Sept. 29. Krassman says the Colts are a different team than they were at the start of the season and have excelled with new coaches coming in helping players understand their roles.
“We’re still a young team, we’re made up mainly of Grade 10s and 11s but they’re really starting to find their place and we’re really starting to find some guys who are really stepping up for us,” Krassman said. “So I anticipate a really good hard fought game against Crescent Heights. I know they’re going to be ready, they’re a tough team as well. Coach (Anthony) Anderson over there is building up a good program there. But we’re coming out and we want that Boksteyn trophy and so we’re coming for the win.”
