Rifles fired up for competitive camp: New head coach looking forward to improving team’s fortunes

The Winnipeg Rifles junior football club fired blanks last year but there’s new ammunition for 2010.

There will be about 35 new faces among the 85 players and a new head coach in Greg Graceffo when training camp opens Aug. 3 for the Prairie Football Conference team.

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The Rifles last season won just one game and, thanks to the winless Edmonton Huskies, finished fifth in the six-team league. But the playoffs eluded them for the second time in four years.

“We’re going to be a tough, hard team. We’re going to run the ball well and play tough defence,” said defensive back Andrew Phan, 22, who has one more year at the University of Manitoba in exercise science.

“I had coach Graceffo before in provincial team (2005 team won gold at the Football Canada Cup) and he takes responsibility very seriously. His philosophy is do your job, if everyone else around you does his job, good things will come.”

Graceffo knows he is starting over in some areas but his mantra is the team must only look forward.

“We want to be a football team that people fear to play, we want to be physical, smart mentally and play hard,” said Graceffo, who has been a Rifles board member since the team’s inception in 2002. “We believe we have lots of talent available in Winnipeg but we have to improve on our compete level. We want to improve on our preparation level and we want to improve in terms of our commitment. These things will start right now (in training camp).”

Battling for spots

HERE’S a look at three key offensive positional battles at the 2010 Winnipeg Rifles training camp, which opens Aug. 3:

Quarterback: Ryan Marsch vs. Tyler Nickel

A dandy battle is expected between Marsch, a second-year player out of Sturgeon Heights who emerged as a leader late last season, and Nickel, a second-year Rifles player from Alberta who was the starter at the beginning of last season.

Running back: Kienan Lafrance vs. Cael Enns

It will be tough to unseat talented incumbent Kienan Lafrance, a Sturgeon Heights graduate who led the Rifles in the ground game last season, but 6-foot-2, 220-pound Cael Enns, who took last year off after playing for the Rifles in 2008, is up for the battle.

Fullback: Darrell Khalian vs. Brian Giesbrecht vs. Adam Kuzbyt

Khalian and Giesbrecht are back from last year while Kuzbyt, a former Maples high school player, has joined the Rifles from the University of Windsor.

PICTURE: From left: Defensive back Andrew Phan, quarterback Ryan Marsch, running back Kienan Lafrance and linebacker Eric Vincent share some laughs in the Winnipeg Rifles’ locker-room at Canad Inns Stadium Tuesday.