The peewee Bears football team is shaping up to be a dynamo force in Central Alberta.
After easily winning their first game in Stettler 37-0, the Sylvan Lake Bears cruised to another victory over the Olds Huskies 50-7 at the H.J. Cody field on Saturday, September 17.
Head Coach Garnet Rambaut was pleased with the early results of the Bears’ season.
“The boys played very well,” he said. “We have a diversified offense and a good defense. We lose half of our players every year, so we never know how the start of our year will go. So far we have been very fortunate and we are very proud of the players.”
The first two games were preceded by three weeks of practices, where players were instilled with the basics of football three days per week. Although the Bears easily handled their opponents, Rambaut does see room for improvement.
“There are many things we didn’t do right,” he said. “In a game like that, we get the opportunity to play many players and all of our players got the opportunity to play. That’s the only way you improve is by learning from your mistakes and that’s what next weeks’ practices will be all about - keying in on the areas we can improve on.”
Rambaut’s team is fortuitously loaded with veterans from last year’s squad. The team will continue to lean on their leadership.
“We have expectations as coaches and we knew the players coming back would give us a strong start this year,” he said. “You identify a blueprint and fill in around it. We knew who was going to be in our starting offense and defense of the returning players. We designed our system around their skills and abilities.”
The blueprint that the Bears depend on is based around that of the H.J. Cody Laker football team. The continuity between the Bears, Lions and Lakers allow groups of kids to grow and develop consistently through their Grade 12 year.
“We are independent but we are based on the Laker’s playbook,” Rambaut said. “This is for continuity purposes and a lot of these kids will get a chance to play for nine years together. If you have a basic system and then tweak it as kids move from each level - it makes it a lot easier for the players and the coaches”
For the coaches at the peewee level the emphasis is of course to win games, however Rambaut stressed that it is more important to instill basic football fundamentals so they will be sound as they progress into higher levels of football.
“We have a great feeder system with the atoms and they possess a number of skills,” he said. “The coaches at each level brings a different experience to the team and it’s gratifying to see them graduate Grade 12 and to see how far they have progressed.”
The Bears play their next home game Saturday, September 24 at 11 a.m. at H.J. Cody field against the Innisfail Cyclones.
H.H.H.S too much for Sylvan Lake Lions
The Lions took their first loss of the season against the Hunting Hills Lighting 0-40.
The coaching staff, on the Lions’ website, credited the Lighting’s defense in the loss and mentioned that injuries and illness played a role in the effort. The Lion’s have time to heal up as they go into a bye week before their game against the Notre Dame Cougars on October 1.
H.J. Cody Lakers take down CamroseThe H.J. Cody Lakers throttled the Camrose Trojans 50-16 during an away game in Camrose.
Lakers quarterback Patrick Bennett went for 138 yards passing and the team rushed for 296 yards enroute to scoring seven touchdowns. Running back Tristan Koller had five carries for 74 yards and wide-receiver Tyrese Hamilton had 73 yards on two catches.
The Lakers play their next game Friday, September 23 against Rundle College in Calgary. Their next home game is Thursday, September 29 versus Rocky Mountain House.
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com