Colts players get ready for final junior football game

There will be a lot of last games played this Sunday. A lot of last games played wearing in the helmet with the Calgary Colts logo, just like every year.

The Colts play their final game of the Prairie Football Conference season Sunday, Oct. 13 on the road against the Saskatoon Hilltops. They enter the game winless in seven tries while the Hilltops are the No. 1 team in the Canadian Junior Football League.

Sixteen players are becoming too old for junior football and will not return.

“Definitely a little surreal, it seems like that was a really fast four years” says captain Stephen Dereniwski, an all-Canadian linebacker.

“It’s was tough with our last home game. It was our last time wearing the Colts jersey at McMahon. For a lot of guys this will be their last time playing football.”

Defensive lineman Jonathan Grossberndt said it will be like saying goodbye to a family they had created.

“It’s hard to believe that all the time has flown by and that last game was the last time we’d be on the McMahon field as a Colt.

“But we have one more game left and we can’t hang our heads low. We have to practice hard and go to Saskatoon and play hard.”

Also graduating are two quarterbacks Jeremy Long and Kiefer Olsen, offensive centre Kenton Boote, who is a captain, wide receiver Richard Sawatzky, who is another captain, defensive back Richard Pilkington, wide receiver Ben Hnatiuk, defensive back Caleb Krueger, defensive lineman Mitch Bec, offensive lineman Matt Baldwin, kicker Andrew Fabian, defensive lineman Vic Fayami, receivers Marcus Gordon and Mike Kusche and running back Dustin Whetton, who has been injured all season.

“Every year it’s a different mix on who you are returning. Next year we will return a whole-lot more than we lose,” head coach John Stevens said of his 65-man roster.

“For instance, defensively we do some key defensive lineman that have been a big part of our lineup, but we do return six or seven guys who have played for us at defensive line.”

One area that will need to be shored up is receiving, where Hnatiuk, Gordon and Sawatzky will leave. Two young quarterbacks — Brett Hunchak and Cole Meyer — have seen action in recent weeks and are showing promise, Stevens said.

Stevens recruited some good young offensive lineman who did not play alot in 2013 who will be ready to play more and protect one of those two QBs in 2014.

The group of 16 will be playing their final home game against a team that is preparing to take a run at their fourth straight CJFL title.

“Whether it’s the first or last game you have to go out there and play hard and do what you can,” Dereniwski said.

“That’s how I’m approaching it and I know the other graduating players are too.’