OLDS — The Bulldogs are nine-man bantam provincial champions after edging the Jr. Coyotes 43-42 in the championship game Nov. 12 in Lethbridge.
Their head coach, Dennis Yurchevich, was there to see it in person, despite having had a cardiac arrest and a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted just a few weeks ago.
“I did the head coaching duties and that was all. All of the play-calling, everything else, I left that to the whole staff,” Yurchevich said during an interview.
“I was there as a figurehead. That’s all I was. I spoke with the officials, I signed the play card at the beginning of the game and then I handed out the medals.
“All the stressful work and everything, I left that to my more-than-qualified coaching staff.”
It was a hard-fought game. The lead changed hands back and forth throughout. At half-time, the Jr. Coyotes were leading, 28-22.
Field conditions were a problem for both teams.
“Being a turf field, it was a little slippery, for sure. Thankfully they had brushed off the field, so most of the snow was gone. But it was still wet and slippery, so it still presented a bit of a challenge to us, for sure,” Yurchevich said.
The big problem for the Bulldogs though was that the Jr. Coyotes were huge, not only on the offensive and defensive lines, but in their backfield as well.
“I’ll give them credit; they are a big team and they have a lot of big, big boys on that team and we struggled to stop the run and that’s where they were the most successful against us.
“But we certainly were able to persevere at the end and come out with the win,” he said.
“They only threw the ball a handful of times. They’re a very run-heavy team.
“Their fullback and their running back were about the size of an offensive lineman and they would just power through. Very strong offensive run game.”
The Bulldogs countered with a strong running game of their own, but also in the air and on special teams.
“We actually scored special teams touchdowns, we returned a kick for a touchdown. We did have lengthy touchdowns on the ground, we had touchdowns in the air, it was a very strong game,” Yurchevich said.
In the end, the Bulldogs prevailed with yet another a running TD.
The Bulldogs would have liked to have practised on turf before Saturday’s game, but last week’s cold weather prevented that, so they practised in a gym for a couple of nights.
“It obviously isn’t ideal. It’s a smaller gym and you can’t have contact practices so it was mostly fundamentals and walking through plays,” Yurchevich said.
“But we all travelled down there Friday night as a team. We stayed in a couple of hotels close to the field, had some team bonding and Saturday morning headed out to the field.”
Now, about 10 Bulldogs age out and will be eligible to join the École Olds High School Spartan football team next year.
But that doesn’t worry Yurchevich.
The Bulldogs had about 30 kids on their roster this year, so there are lots of players ready to step up into starting roles next season.
Also, nine players on this season’s Central League champion peewee Huskies will be eligible to play bantam football next season.
“Our bantam team looks like it’s going to be equally as strong, moving forward, as it was this year,” Yurchevich said.
