Wingate rises up to be key playmaker on Valkyries defence

Saskatoon to host Storm in WWCFL semifinal

Jamie Wingate (#47) is a playmaker on defence for the Valkyries.

Jamie Wingate is filling a need for the Saskatoon Valkyries that wasn’t seen at the start of the season.

When the 2022 WWCFL campaign began, the 25-year-old alumna of Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School was penciled in as a starter at linebacker for the Valkyries. Wingate was entering her third season with the team and second season as a starter.

She didn’t expect to be veteran presence in the Valkyries linebacker corps. That was the role Wingate found herself in as the injury bug started taking chunks out of the Valkyries defensive unit.

Star outside linebacker Beth Lalonde, who has played for the Valkyries since their inaugural season in 2011, was injured before the 2022 campaign began and has yet to dress for a game. Star middle linebacker Emmarae Dale was injured during the Valkyries second game of the season and has been kept off the field until returning to practice this week.

Star defensive back Shay De Jong is still out with a leg injury and various other players have been in and out the Valkyries defence with various dings.

Wingate along with defensive tackle Jaime Lammerding, who has been with the Valkyries since their inaugural season in 2022, have often been the two to offer the veteran presence on a defence that has usually consisted of first or second year players or veterans that have converted over from offence.

“That was kind of a shock for me,” said Wingate, who has mainly played middle linebacker as the injuries piled up. “I’m still learning every practice and every game too.

“We’ve had so many injuries just hit every position. Everyone just has to work together, and we just try to make it as best as we can with who we have on the field. Obviously, we can tell we are missing them (the injured defensive players).

Jamie Wingate has taken her game to a higher level.

“That is one thing I feel like this year we did great at is just like overcoming those things and being able to still come together as a team and still pull off a ‘W’ and everything.”

Even with the constant changes on defence, the Valkyries finished the WWCFL regular season with a 4-0 record. 

After the Winnipeg Wolfpack forfeited their WWCFL quarter-final to the Saskatoon side, the Valkyries (5-0 overall) are set to host a WWCFL semifinal against the Edmonton Storm (3-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

The other WWCFL semifinal takes plays on Saturday in Calgary as the host Rage (3-1) take on the Winnipeg based Manitoba Fearless (4-1 overall). The Fearless downed the Regina Riot 20-13 in a WWCFL quarter-final contest held this past Sunday in Winnipeg.

The semifinal winners advance to the WWCFL champion game slated for Saturday, June 25 at 7 p.m. at SMF Field.

Wingate played a big role helping the Valkyries close their regular season schedule winning both games of a home-and-home series against the Riot. On May 28 at SMF Field, Wingate made an interception and had two total tackles helping the Valkyries post a 46-7 victory.

On June 4 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Wingate piled up 8.5 total tackles helping the Valkyries post a 33-14 victory over the Riot.

Valkyries head coach Pat Barry said Wingate has helped the Valkyries defence stay steady through adversity.

Jamie Wingate has taken on a leadership role on defence.

“When you think what our linebacking corps was going to look like at the beginning of the year, it is amazing with what Jamie (Wingate) has done for us,” said Barry. “She has stepped up.

“She has been a leader. She has so much fun out here. She is really starting to get it, and she is playing so well.

“It is something that is super exciting to how she has been for our linebacking corps.”

During her final two years of high school at Holy Cross, Wingate played in the Rush high school female flag league. Valkyries quarterback Alex Eyolfson was her teammate on those flag teams at Holy Cross.

Wingate played hockey, basketball and volleyball growing up, and basketball became her main sport at Holy Cross. Eyolfson and Wingate were teammates on the Holy Cross Crusaders senior girls’ basketball team and won a 5A Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association title in 2015.

Following her graduation from Holy Cross in 2015, Wingate played for the Medicine Hat College Rattlers Women’s Basketball team in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association ranks for a season and a half before deciding to end her competitive playing career.

She continues to coach basketball both at Holy Cross and in Saskatchewan’s provincial team system.

While she was coaching, Wingate wanted to get back into playing a sport competitively, but she didn’t want play through a sport that had a lengthy season. 

With the Valkyries playing all their games usually inside a three-month time period, Wingate decided to give tackle football a try. She had always wanted to play with the Valkyries since her high school days.

Jamie Wingate, right, loves the physical aspect of football.

Wingate joined the Valkyries after they had already played their first game in the 2019 season. She saw action in two regular season games and all of the team’s playoff contests helping them win the WWCFL title.

Wingate took to the sport immediately and enjoyed the fact everyone on the Valkyries were best friends. She found the contact side of the game fun too.

“Hitting people is very nice,” said Wingate. “You can ask anyone who played basketball against me or with me they know I’m a very aggressive person.

“I feel like it was just very suiting for my temperament. That is the one thing I like too is basically I don’t get in trouble for any of the stuff that I used to do in other sports that I would get in trouble for. It is also different than any other sport that I’ve played as well.”

During the second half of that 2019 season, Wingate remembers she tried to be there to help her teammates emotionally after defensive position coach Justin Filteau died in a plane crash on June 1 of that year. 

She was proud her team was able to win the WWCFL title that season after dedicating that campaign to Filteau’s memory.

Beating the host Riot 25-3 in the title game at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on June 29, 2019 will always be a highlight for Wingate.

“Being there with everyone was like super awesome,” said Wingate. “It was like great just like being on the Mosaic Field.

Jamie Wingate is good reading opposing offences.

“Just to have that experience was crazy to me. With Alex Eyolfson on the team, me and her we’ve won provincials and stuff in basketball. To be in a big CFL stadium like that was crazy, and the competition was really good too.

“It was just like a totally different game honestly than any other games that we played.”

Following the 2019 campaign, the 2020 and the 2021 WWCFL seasons were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that gripped the world. The Valkyries managed to get on the field in 2021 playing a three-game exhibition series against the Riot winning every one of those contests.

In the second game of that series, Wingate returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown in a 42-7 victory at SMF Field on July 16, 2021.

Barry said Wingate has improved a lot since she first joined the Valkyries. When she first game to the team, Barry said the coaches through she would be a great fit at linebacker.

“She is a big fearless and physical athlete,” said Barry. “That is sort of the definition of linebacker.

“That is why she excels in that position.”

Wingate is looking forward to play the Storm on Sunday. When the regular season came to a close, Wingate said you could feel the level of play in practice has gone up a notch now that the playoff are here.

Jamie Wingate (#47) and the Valkyries aim for playoff success.

“It just seems like our intensity is up, and we’re really trying to focus and get everything down and make sure that we’re prepared for this game,” said Wingate. “Another big thing is like we’re not thinking about what is after this.

“We’re really focusing down on the team ahead of us and making sure we have them under control. Once we have that handled, then we can move on to the next team. It will be good.

“With the playoffs, obviously, we are a little nervous, but hopefully, we will be able to shake it off and take it to them.”

Former Valkyries star Chan makes homecoming with Storm

Ehjae Chan (#24) celebrates an interception in 2019.

Sunday’s WWCFL semifinal game at Saskatoon Minor Football Field will be a homecoming for Ehjae Chan.

Chan will be playing for the visiting Edmonton Storm when they take on the host Saskatoon Valkyries at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. Before joining the Storm, Chan starred at linebacker and defensive back for the Valkyries for six seasons from 2014 to 2019 helping them win three WWCFL titles in 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Chan had an interception in the 2016 WWCFL Championship game when the Valkyries hammered the Storm 81-6 at the University of Lethbridge Community Stadium in Lethbridge, Alta.

In the 2019 WWCFL Championship game, Chan recorded two interceptions and three tackles helping the Valkyries down the host Regina Riot 25-3 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. The Valkyries dedicated that 2019 campaign to the memory of defensive position coach Justin Filteau, who passed away in a plane crash before Saskatoon’s final regular season game.

Filteau was on Chan’s mind, when she took part in a large post-game media scrum.

“This feels unreal, especially with everything that has happened this year, the adversity our team has experienced and overcome on this field,” said Chan. “It means so much like more than words can even express.

“For us to be here to have played in this game and pulled through, we really felt coach Filteau here today. This game was 100 per cent for him. I think for us it just felt fitting.”

Chan moved to Edmonton after the 2019 campaign came to a close. She is helping coach minor football in the Alberta capital along with returning to action and playing for the Storm this season.

Ehjae Chan (#24) celebrates the Valkyries 2019 WWCFL title win.

No matter where life takes her, she will always be part of the Valkyries family.

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