“Two claps and a Ric Flair” – Filteau’s memory lives on with Huskies

Justin Filteau in action with the Huskies in 2016.

    It is a cheer that has extra meaning with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team.

    When they are on the field for practice and during games, someone will yell, “Give me two claps and a Ric Flair.”

    The players on the field clap their hands twice and follow that up with a loud, “Woo!”

    The cheer was brought to the team by linebacker Justin Filteau in 2015, when he came over to the Huskies from the Saskatoon Hilltops, who are a powerhouse in the Canadian Junior Football League.

    Filteau did that cheer in Saskatchewan’s judo scene, which he was heavily involved in.

    Filteau played for the Huskies in 2015 and 2016 and helped the coaching staff in 2017, when he suffered a season ending injury in training camp tearing his pectoral muscle. He departed from the team after the 2017 campaign.

Justin Filteau pursues a play in 2016.

    On June 1 of this year, Filteau died tragically in a plane crash at age 26.

    The Huskies have continued doing the Ric Flair cheer this season, and its extra meaning isn’t lost on anyone with the team.

    “It is fun,” said fourth-year utility offensive star Colton Klassen. “It gets the guys going.

    “That is the main reason we do it. Justin used to love to do it with the defence. He did it when he did judo, so that was definitely one of the reasons it carried over.

    “It is just another little subtle thing that just continues over for what Justin did and how he impacted the program. He is still in our thoughts, and he is still in our prayers, so that is the main reason we do it.”

    The cheer will be something spectators hear when the Huskies (0-1) host their home opener on Friday at 7 p.m. at Griffiths Stadium against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds (0-1). The contest is the Huskies annual homecoming game.

    Besides doing the cheer, the Huskies are wearing #45 decals on their helmets this season in memory of Filteau, because #45 was the number he wore with the Huskies and the Hilltops. A number of players on the Huskies current roster were teammates with Filteau.

Justin Filteau (#45) and the Huskies defence purse a ball carrier in 2016.

    Klassen was a member of Huskies for two of Filteau’s seasons. They coached inner city six-man youth football together.

    The skilled pass catcher still thinks about Filteau’s passing. Filteau, who was from Moose Jaw, was in Medicine Hat along with Moose Jaw residents Jim Wilk and Kerry DePape for a bachelor party. The three were flying back to Moose Jaw in a small plane shortly after takeoff.

    “It is definitely on the back of everybody’s mind,” said Klassen. “It is definitely something none of us are going to forget.

Colton Klassen coached minor football with Justin Filteau.

    “We’re dedicating this season a lot to Justin too. We have a 45 on our helmets this year. I only played two years with Justin, but he would have done anything for this team.

    “If that meant playing, if that meant being on the scout team, Justin did anything that he was asked.”

    Filteau seemed to anything that was asked of him from the football community in the province. After his playing days wrapped up, he coached minor football at different levels, the Bishop James Mahoney High School Saints and the Saskatoon Valkyries of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League.
    Filteau was planning to meet up with the Valkyries for a WWCFL regular season game on June 2 against the Riot after landing in Moose Jaw on the night of his ill-fated fight. The Valkyries dedicated the rest of their season to their defensive position coach winning the WWCFL title going 9-0 overall in their 2019 campaign.

    Huskies fifth-year defensive tackle Evan Machibroda was around for all of Filteau’s years with the team.

Evan Machibroda (#54) said the Huskies talk a lot about Justin Filteau.

    Machibroda, who was a first team U Sports all-Canadian all-star last season, said his team knows how special Filteau’s efforts were in giving back to the game.
    “He is definitely still talked about in the locker room,” said Machibroda. “I don’t think he ever won’t be, because he was just a really influential guy in Saskatoon and the football community in Saskatchewan as well.

    “You can’t have a bad word to say about the guy.”

    Machibroda thinks about Filteau every time his team does the Ric Flair cheer.
    “It is just a way to remember him,” said Machibroda. “That would be a little way of doing it.”

    Huskies defensive coordinator Warren Muzika said the Ric Flair cheer has extra meaning for the team now, because everyone thinks about Filteau. 

Huskies DC Warren Muzika had a tough time with Justin Filteau’s passing.

    Muzika believes the Huskies players are still at different stages in dealing with Filteau’s passing.

    “A few guys in the locker room have a #45 tattooed on their bodies in different places,” said Muzika. “Filteau meant a lot to a lot of people.

    “The guys cared a lot about Justin, and they felt really obviously just terrible when it happened. We think positively of him all the time, and we are reminded of him often around here.”

Justin Filteau in action for the Saskatoon Hilltops in 2014.

    When Muzika became the Huskies defensive coordinator in 2017, he said Filteau was big in helping him coach the other players.
    Filteau suffered his season ending injury in the Huskies 22-10 exhibition loss to the McMaster University Marauders in Hamilton, Ont., on Aug. 25, 2017 but he elected to be around the team as much as possible looking for ways to help.

    “He was at every practice once he was done his surgery,” said Muzika. “He helped us with scripts.

    “He was almost like an assistant coach that year. He was just a tremendous help and a positive energy around the room.”
    Before joining the Huskies, Muzika was an assistant coach with the Hilltops for a lengthy stretch and was their defensive line coach and specialty teams coordinator during Filteau’s first four years with the team from 2010 to 2013.
    Filteau graduated from the Hilltops following the 2014 campaign earning four CJFL championship rings.

Justin Filteau ready for action in 2016.

    Muzika, who played five seasons in the CFL from 1999 to 2003 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, enjoyed coaching Filteau. 

    The defensive coordinator, who built a reputation as one of the toughest players to step on a football field in Saskatchewan when he was a linebacker with the Hilltops and Huskies, said he had a tough time with Filteau’s passing.

    “It is always terrible when you see young people pass too soon,” said Muzika. “It’s a tremendous loss, but at the same time, we focus on the positives that he brought to the world and try to emulate the way Justin lived his life.”

    In conjunction with remembering Filteau, Klassen said doing the Ric Flair cheer gives the Huskies extra jump. 
    So when the breaks are beating the Dogs, it is time for “two claps and a Ric Flair.”

    “You definitely have it in the back of your mind a memory of Justin doing it,” said Klassen. “The nice thing is you know about Justin is he is watching down.

    “He is watching over us. He is happy we are doing it. He is happy that it passed over.

A  “J.F #45” sticker on a helmet of a Huskies player.

    “We’re just hoping to keep doing it, and we hopefully can give him a good winning season.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Stampeders star QB Mitchell is great for the CFL

Signal caller entertains mixing it up with Roughriders fans

Stampeders QB Bo Levi Mitchell is one of the best players in the CFL.

    Saskatchewan Roughriders fans may want to sit down before they read the following line.

    Calgary Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is great for the CFL.

    He might be even better for the CFL when he is exchanging beaks with Roughriders fans. It is too bad he deleted his Twitter account during the off-season. The Katy, Texas, product was good at using that social media platform to get Rider Nation all worked up.

    Last season after Roughriders receiver/defensive back Duron Carter returned a Mitchell interception for a touchdown, Saskatchewan play-by-play voice Rod Pedersen made his famous “Bo Levi, shut your mouth” call. Saskatchewan won that contest 30-7 on Oct. 20, 2017 in Calgary.

Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell,  left, escapes a Roughriders pass rush in 2016.

    On Saturday, Mitchell, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 198 pounds, will once again likely exchange barbs with his favourite opposing fanbase as the Stampeders (5-0) travel to Mosaic Stadium to take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-2) at 7 p.m. The Roughriders announced on Wednesday the game was sold out, and tickets on the team’s verified resale channel are starting at $73.

    Mitchell, who hasn’t missed a start this season, was playing things cool in front of the media in Calgary on Thursday saying a knee he injured in a 27-3 victory over the Redblacks in Ottawa on July 12 feels great.

Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell, centre, burst into the open field in 2016.

    Here is hoping he is saving some verbal jabs for the pre-game press conferences and scrums that will be held in Regina on Friday.
    Even if Mitchell keeps his mouth shut, Rider Nation will likely give him a welcome worthy of a wrestling heel worthy of Ric Flair or the late Nick Bockwinkel in their “bad guy” primes.

    Like Flair or Bockwinkel in wrestling, Mitchell, who turned 28-years-old in March, will likely become a baby face for Rider Nation the longer he keeps playing in the CFL at a high level. Heck, you might like Mitchell right now, if you are a Roughriders supporter. You just don’t want to say it.

    Fans that spend a lot of time getting their “hate on” for a player on an opposing team doing research for heckles, making signs or creative props usually deep down find they actually like that player.

Bo Levi Mitchell gets set in the pocket in 2016.

    You would be hard pressed to see a Roughriders fan say they hate defensive end Charleston Hughes now that he plays for Saskatchewan. Hughes used to be a target for taunts from Roughriders fans, when he suited up for the Stampeders.

    Part of the reason you get your hate for Mitchell if you are a fan of the “green and white” is because he is a good player. Actually, Mitchell might be one of the best in the entire CFL.

    Now in his seventh campaign in the league, Mitchell has a 61-10-2 record in the regular season as a starting quarterback, and he has completed 1,592 of 2,428 career pass attempts for 20,679 yards, 124 touchdown passes and 48 interceptions in regular season play.
    Mitchell was named the CFL’s most outstanding player in 2016.

    He has guided the Stampeders into the Grey Cup game on three occasions winning in 2014 and falling in 2016 and 2017. The haters will likely take glee in the two title game losses.

Bo Levi Mitchell fires a pass downfield in 2016.

    Had the Stampeders won those latter two Grey Cup appearances, Mitchell would be the CFL’s version of Tom Brady of the NFL’s New England Patriots.

    While Brady makes much more money in the NFL than Mitchell does in the CFL, the Stampeders signal caller has a pretty good life.

    Mitchell met his wife, Madison, while attending Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash., and playing for the Eagles football team. Madison would become the captain of the school’s cheerleading team.

    They make their home year round in Calgary, are involved with many charitable endeavours there and have a baby daughter named Ele. They are one really great looking family.

    It feels like if you sat down and talked to Mitchell, it would be really tough to actually hate him.

The veteran pivot will dish out respectful complements to opponents too, which another fact that shouldn’t be forgotten.

    During the current campaign, Mitchell is playing out the final year of his contract with the Stampeders. If he continues to have the success he has had, the NFL could come calling.

Bo Levi Mitchell, centre, knows how to escape trouble.

    Like former CFL star quarterbacks of the past like Warren Moon, Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia, Mitchell is ready for that step.

    For present day, Mitchell, who has a radio show in Calgary, is an established star in the CFL. The colour he can bring with his gift for the gab adds interest to the circuit and to games that involve the Stampeders.

    The antics that could occur on Saturday will likely have more of a fun twist to them.

    Besides the colour, Mitchell has been a leader on the field and in the community for the Stampeders.

    He is one of those guys you want to be an ambassador for your league.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.