Skip to content

Elecs football team bows out in Swift Current

There were a lot of battles the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs football team was able to face head-on, but the battle of attrition hurt their chances of success more than any game this season.
Elecs
Elecs player Rylan Erdelyan runs with the ball earlier this year against Moose Jaw Central. File photo

There were a lot of battles the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs football team was able to face head-on, but the battle of attrition hurt their chances of success more than any game this season.

The Elecs lost their last regular season game 80-6 in Yorkton to the Yorkton Regional High School Raider Gridders and then proceeded to take only 21 players into their playoff game Saturday in Swift Current and lost 69-22 to the Colts.

Given the fact that there were so many injuries over the course of the season and the importance of the players lost to injury, head coach Mark Schott credits the players throughout the year.

“We were really shorthanded going into that (playoff) game,” he said. “We lost a couple of players to injuries during the game so we had 19 players playing most of that game and as a group, they played hard and tough football right to the end.

“The odds were stacked against them and the group of players that we had, they didn’t let that get them down and they were determined to keep fighting and playing right to the end of the game. It was an impressive effort… with the numbers that we had and the key players we were missing.”

The Colts had beaten the Elecs 51-15 at Woodlawn Field just a few weeks before, with a slightly larger roster wearing the white, red and blue of the Elecs.

The Elecs had a lot of talent out at a lot of positions over the last half of the season, which would have been their toughest half of the season even without getting bit by the injury bug.

“Unfortunately it was very rare that we were able to have all that talent available to us on a given day,” said Schott. “We’re constantly adjusting personnel on the fly and I don’t remember a year like this in all my years of football where there were this many significant injuries, whether it’s season-ending injuries or just nagging injuries throughout the season.

“It was frustrating, but we had to call upon other players and make do with who was there. The players who were slotted in played hard and it was good to see.”

Schott said it would have been easy for those players to not try to carry on and play hard but they didn’t have any of that. Schott said it spoke well of their character and next year most of the injured players will come back.

The Elecs will graduate 11 players this season, not the least of which was Rylan Erdelyan, who stepped in at quarterback for the injured Kaleb Bechtold and also played defensive back and receiver at different points in the season.

“We’re definitely losing some key pieces but the bulk of our team is coming back and there’s some good players coming up from the bantam team that we’re hoping to work into the mix,” said Schott. “We’re hoping the talent and pieces are still in place and the core of our team is still returning.”