HUMBOLDT — In their home night game against the Delisle Rebels, the Humboldt Collegiate Institute Mohawks were defeated 44-26.
“For the most part, we had a lot of hustle, but I think a lot of mistakes were made and the kids were a little bit nervous in some circumstances,” said Cory Popoff, the head coach.
Popoff said he saw a lot of errors when it comes to blocking and tackling.
“We’ve got a bye week coming up, so we’ll make sure we practice.”
The night game, held Sept. 17, was also about celebrating the 50th year of the program. Alumni from all over the nation came back to Humboldt.
“The turnout has been fantastic. All things considered, we’re still in the pandemic. Yet, we had people coming from as far away as Alberta to be here tonight. There’s a really good buy in from alumni,” said Brian Grest, an organizer.
“Unless you’ve actually played the game of football, you probably really don’t understand what it means to be part of that team. They always refer to football as the ultimate team sport and it really is. I’m standing here tonight visiting with about eight of my former teammates. That means the world to me.”
During half-time, the game honoured Pete Smith, who was the first coach of the program. He passed away in June at the age of 72.
“He was only at HCI for that one year, but look at the ball he got rolling. He continued an illustrious career, including coaching stints with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the University of Alberta Golden Bears,” the honouring speech said.
“We have lost Coach Smith, and we have also lost a number of other teammates & colleagues as the years have kept ticking by. And each and every one of them had a story. Please join me in a moment of silence to honour all of these former classmates, teammates, colleague, and comrades from past seasons.”
Grant Staples, the second coach of the team, was at the game. He said when he started, there wasn't much equipment for the team.
“It took a while to build it. We had an administration that really really supported football."
Staples said he coached because the sport lot that you cannot teach any other way
“Team sports are so very important for the personal development of young people, young people that are searching for identity, searching for things in life that they're not sure of.”
