Nova Scotia: NSVFL team season review (junior varsity)

Metro Mustangs:

2012 Regular Season Record: 6-2 (first place)

They came out of the gates looking untouchable from the start of the junior varsity season.  The Mustangs proved to be a pleasant surprise this season as they reversed their fortunes from a year ago.

“We had great athletes with a lot of football experience and skill while pulling together players and coaches from all the different high schools and watch them gel as a team,” adds Mustangs head coach Greg Bayne in his regular season assessment.  “Winning as many games as we did, given our record last year and the tough losses were a positive.”

However in week nine of the season, the injury bug caught up with the league leaders.  As a result, they looked vulnerable and lost their final two games of the regular season.

“The turning point for us was injuries to key players in key positions,” explains the Mustangs head coach.  Running backs and our quarterback being injured and not able to play have challenged our offensive production.”

However, that is not the only challenge the Mustangs faced during the season.

“It’s been a challenge with how busy the players have been with school exams and other football commitments,” adds Bayne.  “You need the players at practice to keep getting better.”

Ultimately, Bayne says he it was a pleasure to be at the helm of a successful year with the Mustangs.

“It has been a privilege to coach such a great group of athletes who are very skilled and hard working players,” says the Mustangs head coach.  “I know they will all go back to their high school programs better players from the experience.”

“I was fortunate to have some excellent coaches who were driven to ensure that the players got the most from the experience.”

Finally, there are some key individuals Bayne would like to thank for their efforts with the Mustangs this season.

“A big thank you to Karrie Ann Buchannan who helped hold the team together with her coordination as Manager and to all the parents who helped get their sons to practice and games on time,” comments Bayne.

Timberlea Renegades:

2012 Regular Season Record: 6-2 (second place)

When the Timberlea Renegades played and subsequently lost to the Metro Mustangs in the first week of the season, they knew they had to take the right steps for improvement.

“The first week’s loss to Metro Mustangs was the turning point,” explains Renegades assistant coach David Rent.   “It was after this loss that the team became aware of the commitment it took to be a winning team and that we could not just go through the motions and expect to win.”

After this realization, the Renegades worked hard and it showed on the field as the team became the surprise of the NSVFL 2012 season.  While there were many wonderful moments experienced by the team, the highlight of the Renegades was their week eight matchup against the Halifax Seahawks.

“The highlight of the season was our second win against the Halifax Seahawks,” reflects the Renegades assistant coach.  “We had a lead but the game was still relatively close, the Seahawks responded with a couple of unanswered scores.”

“We rallied and did not lose focus to win the game.”

The mixture of veteran and rookie players on the team made it a positive yet challenging season for the Renegades.

“We knew what the veteran players were capable of and they were all fairly comfortable with the offensive and defensive systems,” assesses Rent.   “With the newer or younger players, there was a learning curve first of them getting to know some of the coaches and second, of learning systems that were a bit more complex they were used to.”

Overall, it has been a successful campaign for the Renegades as they get set to vie for the league title against the Mustangs on June 30th.

“It has been a lot of fun, and a great learning experience for both player and coach,” adds Rent.

Halifax Seahawks:

2012 Regular Season Record: 5-3 (third place)

Reflecting back on the team’s journey this spring, the Halifax Seahawks co-head coach says when the team got together this past February, everyone knew it something special would unfold over the coming months.

“It was a great learning experience for everyone right from the beginning,” adds the Seahawks co head-coach, who coached alongside Mike Thomson.  “A lot of guys found out what football was all about and a lot got individual attention to work on specific areas to improve on.”

As for strengths and weaknesses the Seahawks displayed over the course of the NSVFL season, the Seahawks co-head coach says the lack of experience hurt them in the long run.

“I think we were just very young and inexperienced at several positions,” explains the Seahawks co-head coach.   “We didn’t play anyone both ways on our team; everyone played a key role on offense or defense which was our intention from the start.”

“Unfortunately, what comes with that is a lot of mistakes and inconsistent play.”

In spite of their shortcomings, the Seahawks had many great moments on the field this spring.

“There was no one single highlight for us as we got better every week and had some really great development with all of our players,” comments the Seahawks co-head coach.  “It’s always great to see first time players make big plays in the games for the first time.”

While the team lost three times over the course of the season, they were right in the game until the dying final minutes.  Overall, the Seahawks’ positive attitude and hard work ethic carried them through the season.  All in all, it was a successful campaign and Seahawks co-head coach says he can’t wait to see how the players on the Seahawks progress in the fall high school season.

“I’m very proud of our kids as we had a great group of guys who committed themselves, played hard, and always came with the right attitude,” reflects the Seahawks co-head coach.  “Maybe we started to peak a little late but this is going to leave our guys hungry as they get ready for their high school camps in two months.”

“I’m really excited to watch these guys contribute to Citadel and J.L. Isley High School next year. We have a lot of future stars and I was honoured to coach them.”

Team Nova Scotia under-16:

2012 Regular Season Record:  3-5 (fourth place)

Team Nova Scotia head coach Chris Valardo says that the final game of the season was the time to get a better look at the players.

“Friday night (Week Nine: June 15th) was the last game of the spring league for us and we took the opportunity to play a lot of players who the coaches wanted to get a good look at before we named our travel team for the Wilson Cup,” explains Team Nova Scotia head coach Chris Valardo.  “The game time and venue were both changed numerous times due to league scheduling issues between Thursday and Friday which caused several of our out of town players to miss the game.”

“So we took the opportunity to use this game as a good time to evaluate players.”

Valardo says that during the game, he was pleasantly surprised by some key individual performances.  One of those was Morgan Laws, who stepped in to play quarterback due to the lacerated thumb injury Cameron Valardo sustained in the first quarter of last week’s game against the Metro Mustangs.  Laws had a completion rate of over 50 percent, threw two touchdown passes and ran for two first downs.

On defense, while there was a player who was a bright, shining star, it also marked the return of another player.

“Matthew Priestnall had an outstanding game making six tackles, three of which came after dislocating his finger in the second half,” comments Valardo.  “This game also was the debut for Will Chamberlain one of our returning veterans who has missed the entire season with a featured ankle.”

Kicker Greg Hutchins turned in a solid performance as he had a 42 yard punt average and chipped in with three special teams tackles.

In his overall season assessment, Valardo says it was a successful campaign for Team Nova Scotia in spite of losing starting pivot Duncan Patterson due to an injury in the fourth quarter of a week seven matchup against the Halifax Seahawks.

“Overall, it was an outstanding season for our team; we were able to play eight football games against older teams which will serve us well in our preparation for the Wilson Cup in Montreal next month,” says the Team Nova Scotia head coach.  “The improvement of our team over the last eight weeks has been tremendous and is a shining example of the quality of athletes in our program and our coaching staff.”

“We really closed the gap on these teams who were older, bigger and more experienced and we were the only team so far to defeat the Metro team in the regular season.”

NOTE:  Comments were not available at press time from the Dartmouth Destroyers

Photos 1 and 4 courtesy of Cathy Connell

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