It is definitely weird to see the
Saskatoon Hilltops sitting at 1-2 in the Prairie Football Conference standings.
The team has 16 Canadian Junior
Football League titles to its credit, which is the most in the history in the
CJFL. The rough start can be more attributed to scheduling than anything.
During those first three games, the
Hilltops had to face the defending CJFL champion Regina Thunder twice. Those
two clubs met in last year’s PFC final.
Usually, teams that met in the
previous year’s conference final would battle in an early season game and then
in a late season contest. With the two clubs having their two scheduled
meetings so early, it did leave a possibility of having a sweep on one side,
which would put the other in a bit of a hole.
Saskatoon’s loss last Saturday to
the Thunder at the newly renovated and reopened Saskatoon Minor Football Field
was particularly disheartening. The hosts led 25-3 at one point and were up
25-6 going into the final two minutes of the game.
Three Thunder touchdowns later and
the visitors escaped with a 26-25 victory. While that rally is viewed on the
Thunder side as an epic one, it is viewed as a collapse as far as the Hilltops
are concerned.
Under head coach Tom Sargeant,
offensive coordinator Sheldon Ball and defensive coordinator Jeff Yausie, don’t
expect Saskatoon to go into a tailspin. All three are experienced and talented
coaches, and the Toppers are capable of finishing the regular season with five
straight wins.
They also realize the level of play
in the PFC is high this year, so there is urgency to get a win Saturday in
Edmonton against the Huskies. The Saskatoon coaches would prefer not to dig out
of a possible 1-3 hole.
With that said, no one would be
surprised if the Hilltops were in the conference final again possibly taking on
the Thunder.
Searching for stats a
big pain
“In Canada, there is hockey and then
there is every other sport.”
I have repeated that line a lot over
the last half decade, and I have found it has never been truer than when I was
searching for statistics regarding the CJFL and exhibition scores involving
university sports over the last few weeks.
Searching for the standings for the
three conferences in the CJFL proved to be a lost cause on the league’s
website.
To find scores, the best course of
action was to scour the websites of individual teams, which proved to be time
consuming.
When it came to finding exhibition
scores for university teams, luck was no better on the Canadian Interuniversity
Sport and the Canada West websites, and the story was the same for the men’s
and women’s hockey leagues playing in those bodies.
On Thursday, the U of Saskatchewan
Huskies men’s hockey team opened an exhibition tournament in Regina, and I had
to go to the U of Regina Cougars website to find out the Huskies downed the
Cougars 7-5.
It also occurred to me that I might
be the only one interested in finding out that information.
This lack of statistical content is
a bad trap for any minor sport body to fall into. NHL and CFL teams are the few
groups in Canada where media companies will dump resources in to cover them.
Most other sports coverage anywhere else in Canada has been cut down to
skeleton crew. If any other sporting group wants coverage, they have to spoon feed
local media or make things like standings or scores easy to track down.
I would suggest that all other minor sports groups in Canada look to
investing in paid staffers to keep their sites updated with stats, stories and
video, if they want to spread their brands. Relying on the overworked and
overstressed reporters working for media companies in Canada to do this is
pretty much hopeless in my view.
Can West champs hit
the ice
The U of S Huskies hockey teams have
to be thankful the leaky pipe at the Rutherford Rink on campus only nixed two
days of on ice sessions.
For a little over a week, it has
been business as usual in preparing for the season. The Saskatoon faithful will
get their first chance to see the defending Canada West champion women’s team
in action this weekend.
The Huskies host the Red Deer
College Queens from the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference on Saturday at 5
p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Rutherford Rink.
The core of the Huskies women’s team
returns as captain Cami Wooster was the only player from last year’s squad to
exhaust her eligibility.
Key returnees will include last year’s
CIS rookie of the year in Kaitlin Willoughby, feisty forward Marley Ervine,
solid rearguard Brooke Mutch and standout goaltender Cassidy Hendricks.
If you have any feedback on this blog, feel free to email comments to
stankssports@gmail.com.
