The Valley Huskers junior football team has become home to a couple of former Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs gridiron stars.
Offensive lineman Ryan Eggen has recently been joined on the B.C. Football Conference (BCFC) team by running back Kolby Dyck. While Eggen has already seen four starts with the Huskers, who play out of Exhibition Stadium in Chilliwack, B.C., Dyck only saw his first action last Saturday at the Apple Bowl in a 66-3 loss to the undefeated Okanogan Sun.
Huskers head coach Adam Smith said Dyck arrived in Chilliwack last week after being one of the final cuts of the Prairie Football Conference’s Regina Thunder and was immediately put to action on special teams. He said Dyck resembles Eggen in having a strong work ethic and positive attitude and should begin to see similar amounts of play once he gets a few more practices under his belt.
“He’s going to get a good role,” said Smith, who is in his second year of coaching the Huskers (0-5 so far this season). “He had a few carries in game one. He only had a few practices, so he’s a bit raw. But he’ll be in the game for 15 to 20 plays for sure moving forward.”
Eggen joined the Huskers, who are members of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) that the BCFC is affiliated with, earlier this summer after sending in a highlight tape of his experiences with the Elecs and attending a spring camp in B.C. put on by the team. He was thrown straight into the fire by starting on the offensive line in the Huskers first game of the year, a 72-17 home loss July 25 to the Kamloops Broncos.
“At first it was kind of overwhelming,” said Eggen. “It was a pretty big jump, but as the games have gone on I’ve got more and more comfortable with the talent of the defenders.”
Smith said the competition level at the CJFL is a step above high school football and a step below Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) ball, so it is a great vehicle for players looking to eventually run onto the field with a university team. He said the junior’s game similar pass-heavy style to the CIS versus a high school’s usual emphasis on running the ball makes the program a good stepping stone for the kids.
“It’s hard to go from 17 to 18 years old right out of high school to even get on a CIS roster, let alone play,” he said. “So kids will come and play two to three years of junior and get on a workout program, get on the field and get some playing time. A lot of the time they get scholarships from this and get to university after that.”
Eggen said his plan is to eventually play university football after his time with the Huskers is done, but first he wants a CJFL championship. He said they have a young team of mostly under 20-year-olds compared to the over-20 laden rosters of the other seven teams in the BCFC, but they’re learning and improving with each game.
“The first game we didn’t move the ball well,” he said. “The second game we started to move it a little bit better and towards the last couple games we started to move the ball really good.”
“It’s a great group of kids,” added Smith. “We’ve had no issues this year. Morale is still up. The kids are working their butts off to get better. They realize there is a bigger picture than this one year.”
