St. Paul Football reflects on Amazing Season

Lions & Bengals honour players at year-end banquet

The St. Paul Football Association honoured the players, coaches, parents, and fans at their year-end banquet on Wednesday evening. There were a lot of shining stars and achievements from both the bantam and high school club, says Todd Tanasichuk with the association.

“We had a very successful season,” Tanasichuk say it was one of the best years for both clubs. “For the Bengals, it was the first time since 2010 that we made it into the Championship game. We came up short, obviously, but the team that we lost to, the Mustangs, went on to win Provincials.” A true test of the caliber of play the Bengals were up against in the Championship game; which was won by the Lloydminister Mustangs 13-0. “The Championship game was probably the toughest test that they had, we definitely played well and we were pretty close to taking it.”

The Bengals named their MVP at the awards banquet, Jayden Dechaine. The Lions named co-MVPs, Madison Brosseau and Spencer Graling. The Lions have a special award that they always present last, to close the ceremonies; Least Recognized, Most Contribution. For 2016, Coach John Lumby presented the award to Brad Dubrule.

“As far as the Lions go, we were in a re-building year,” Tanasichuk says he was very impressed by the fight the Lions showed on the field, despite having a young team. “We lost a lot of grade 12s last year. We knew we were very young and we only had 28 on the roster and I think out of those 28, 26 were able to play. We were very low in numbers and we knew it would be a re-building year. To be able to go to Provincials was a real success story for us.”

In years past, the Lions have had Elk Point kids on their squad. This year their were no kids from neighbouring communities, which meant the team did not have to include Elk Point’s population when being tiered. Thus, unlike other years, the Lions were played in Tier IIII Provincials (rather than Tier III). Football is tiered according to population, not skill.

“We’re usually at least 30 players,” explains Tanasichuk, “and more experienced too. We had a lot of new players, who never even played bantam football.” The success of making Provincial finals was a huge accomplishment for the Lions. The team ultimately lost the championship game, 37-13 to Sexsmith.