The Colts in action against Central last season

(Written by Marc Smith)

The Moose Jaw High School Football season opens up in just two days with a doubleheader.  Vanier takes on Central at Gutheridge Field on Thursday, while Swift Current will play host to Estevan in the other game.

The Colts come into the year after an up and down 2010 season that saw them finish the regular season at 1-5 and then fall to Estevan in the league quarterfinals.

 

A Maturing Team

 

Swift Current head coach Derek Murdoch sees his young team getting older and better, “Everybody is a year older which will be kind of nice, we were a pretty young football team last year.  We're hoping that with that experience we can expect a little bit better result, but on the other hand we know that just being older isn't good enough, so we're excited and looking to improve on our finish last year.”

 

The Colts offence will feature a fourth year starter at quarterback in Josh Siemens.  He threw for 552 yards on 55-of-144 passing in 2010, but 10 interceptions hurt the team on a number of occasions.

 

“We're hoping that he'll make some good decisions for us.  We're going to give him some chances to make plays,” said Murdoch.

 

“I think we're going to get a little simpler, we were maybe trying to do a little bit too much with the guys we had last year.  We've got some size, so we hope that we can grind games out, but we have a quarterback who can throw the ball too, so we'll be very balanced.”

 

Murdoch added that he expects big things from junior receiver Jaylen Mayall.  He finished sixth in the league in receiving yards last year with 15 catches for 170 yards.

 

"We've got a pretty big o-line that's anchored by a guy who played for Team Saskatchewan this past summer at the Under-18 Canada Cup.  Kurtis Wegren's going to be a guy that's hopefully going to lead our offensive line."

 

Defence Going To Be Key

 

Swift Current struggled on the defensive side of the ball in 2010, and Murdoch says he feels they’re going to be a bit quicker and more skilled then in previous years on defence.

 

“We've got athletes, we're not super big, but we're going to have our guys flying around and I hope that you'll see pretty aggressive gang tackling on every play,” said Murdoch.

 

“We've got some guys that have been around for a couple of years, Chris Vanstone is a defensive lineman who's in grade 12, he'll be a rush end, we're hoping he'll get some pressure on the quarterback and make some plays for us.”

 

The first game of the year will have a little extra meaning for the Colts as they will look to extract a little bit of revenge on Estevan after the Elecs beat Swift Current in last year’s playoffs for their first win in school history.

 

Murdoch says they just need to worry about what they can control, “Just go out and work hard and be discipline, you can't put a premium on discipline in high school football.  If we can go out and kind of eliminate some mental mistakes, but also the penalties that often get a team in trouble at the beginning of the year.  If we can do those things and just grind things out and be tough and physical, we'll see what happens.”

 

The Colts and Elecs will kickoff from Swift Current on Thursday at 4:30pm.  Vanier and Central hit the field at the same time here in Moose Jaw at Gutheridge Field.

 

More on High School Football:

HS Football Preview - Peacock

HS Football Preview - Estevan

Mark Smith talks to Colts Coach Derek Murdoch