Bellerose Bulldogs Football

When high school football kicks off in the fall, St. Albert teams will huddle up as contenders in the revamped metro Edmonton association.

With the Edmonton Public Schools Athletic Association joining the Metro league, the Bellerose Bulldogs will remain in the Carr conference and the St. Albert High Skyhawks and Paul Kane Blues will shift to the Miles conference.

The metro senior league will feature eight teams in Carr, eight teams in Miles and nine teams in a new division three format.

Last year in metro nine teams competed in Carr and five played in Miles

The public league consisted of four teams in the Bright conference and six in the Gilfillan conference.

The new-look Carr is stacked with four metro holdovers – Bev Facey Falcons (two-time defending Carr champions), Austin O’Brien Crusaders (two-time defending Tier I provincial gold medallists), Salisbury Sabres and Bellerose – plus the Spruce Grove Panthers (Tier I provincial finalists), Harry Ainlay Titans, Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds and Jasper Place Rebels from the public league’s Bright conference.

“Without question, it’s the strongest division in Alberta by far. Every game is going to be ultra competitive. It’s very exciting for football in Edmonton and St. Albert,” said Bellerose head coach Chad Hill.

He is confident Bellerose can hold its own against the best of the best.

“We’re really looking forward to the challenge. A lot of people have worked very hard to get ourselves up to the Carr conference and be successful in the Carr conference so we wanted to stay there and compete. We feel we have the team to be very competitive in this division so that’s why we chose to stay in it,” Hill said. “We’re going to have to be 100 per cent prepared every week and it’s not just going to test our players’ physical toughness but mental toughness as well because every game will be tough.”

At the provincial level, Bellerose is Tier I (1,250-plus students), but if there are no players from Sturgeon Composite High School on the team as in past years the Bulldogs will battle the Crusaders for the Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) Edmonton berth.

Last year Bellerose and the Skyhawks tied for second in league play and the Bulldogs finished 6-3 overall – with two losses against their bitter rivals from St. Albert Catholic High School.

“We feel pretty good about the returning players we have for senior. We have about 20 players back from last year’s squad,” Hill said. “We also had the strongest junior team in history at Bellerose (9-0 as the school’s first junior premier championship team) and arguably the strongest since I started coaching high school ball (in 1995) for a junior team so we have a core of talent moving up. Obviously Seth Waselenchuk can be a game breaker, whether it’s senior or junior. We expect Seth to step right in and make plays. Some of our young guys on defence, like John Comeau and Nick Cowan, we’re expecting them to come in and to be not just contributors but to make plays in the front seven.”

The only downer for football fans is the Battle of St. Albert between Bellerose and Skyhawks – the most heated rivalry in St. Albert high school sports – has been put on hold with last year’s Carr finalists and Tier III (450 to 749 students) provincial silver medallists electing to play in Miles against schools of roughly the same size instead of remaining in the Carr.

Sam Johnson, head coach of the Skyhawks, described the Carr as “murderer’s row.”

“It’s going to be the best conference in football in Alberta without a doubt and it doesn’t make any sense to beat our heads against that wall,” Johnson said. “Since we’ve become our own entity, our own Tier III school (after Paul Kane formed its own football program in 2011 after allowing its students to play for the Skyhawks), our focus has shifted not so much from a league title but to a provincial title. Now, does this make our run easier? No. There are some good teams in what they’re calling the Miles conference now.”

The Miles is made up of the O’Leary Spartans, W.P. Wagner Warriors and Strathcona Lords in Tier I, Paul Kane, Leduc Tigers and McNally Tigers in Tier II and the Ardrossan Bisons, last year’s Tier IV (449 or less students) provincial finalists.

The Skyhawks or Ardrossan will represent Edmonton at provincials, depending if the Bisons are classified as Tier III this year.

The Skyhawks lost a whopping 24 players to graduation from the first St. Albert team since the 1997 Tier I Storm to play in a provincial final. All-star quarterback Keith Zyla is back from last year’s talented 9-4 line-up.

The junior program, however, is 1-13, dating back to the 2010 regular season.

“Last year we were so wafer thin,” Johnson said of the senior team’s small roster. “I would still put our No. 1 athletes against any athletes at any school, but when you don’t have that depth it’s a tough thing when you’re a smaller program.”

At Paul Kane, head coach Rob Strecker was also concerned about depth on the senior team when deciding between the Carr and Miles conferences.

“It was a struggle because I know athletically we have the boys that can compete, but as far as numbers and depth I just don’t know. If we have a roster of 32, you lose a couple of kids and then all of a sudden you’re in the 20s and it makes it really tough,” Strecker said. “Being so competitive that I am, I wanted that division one Carr conference and then I started thinking about what was best for the boys and that was us going against schools who are in our population size.”

A variety of scenarios to determine the Tier II Edmonton rep for provincials depends on whether Paul Kane wins Miles and how the Crusaders and Bellerose, if it becomes a Tier II school, perform in Carr.

“We have the opportunity to get to that berth in a crossover (game) if it happens and that’s all we want, just the opportunity. I didn’t think it was fair that just because those teams are playing up there (in Carr) they got the automatic berth,” Strecker said.

This is Paul Kane’s year to make hay while the sun shines. The main core of the 2011 junior premier championship team is now in Grade 12, led by elite-level quarterback Cory Knott, prolific receiver Tyler Turner, hard-hitting linebacker Graeme Loerke and dependable running back Greg Fleming.

Last year Paul Kane finished 3-5 in Carr as the 2011 graduating juniors played major roles for the senior team.

“Athletically we match up against anybody but we’re not big and this is one of the problems we’ve faced the last two years. We’re not a big school, we’re an athletic school and since we’re not a big team we have to change some things around what we do offensively and defensively. We’re not going to blow teams off the line of scrimmage so we’re going to have to use our speed and smarts and go about it that way,” Strecker said.