Power running back breaks out in third year
with team
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| Brody Komarnicki is having a breakout season with the Hilltops. |
Running with power will always be in Brody Komarnicki’s
football DNA.
The third-year running back is having a breakout season with
the defending CJFL champion Saskatoon Hilltops. After the team’s first six
games, Komarnicki has carried the ball 86 times for 435 yards and five
touchdowns.
Komarnicki’s style is unmistakable. He hits the hole hard
and runs over and through the opposition. The style goes back to Komarnicki’s
roots in the game when he played for the Bishop James Mahoney High School
Saints Football team, whose head coach at the time is current Hilltops
offensive line coach Donnie Davidsen.
“When I first started playing, I always wanted like those
big runs, and it is good to still have those big runs,” said Komanicki, who
stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 205 pounds. “I was just dancing around a little too
much.
“He (Davidsen) basically is just like you see that first
hole and you hit it hard and north-south always. Then after that once you get
into the open room, then you can start kind of dancing a little bit and make
your cuts and all that. You always want positive yards.
“If you can hit that gap hard and get a couple of yards
there, then you can dance. You don’t want to be dancing in that backfield and
get negative yards. Donnie definitely put that into my head in high school and
it worked out then, so I’m trying to apply it to Hilltops now.”
Komanicki, who resides in Warman, focused on playing
basketball until his Grade 10 year starting in September of 2021. At that time,
he wanted to give football a try and enrolled at Bishop James Mahoney as Warman
High School didn’t have an outlet to play high school football.
At Bishop James Mahoney, Komanicki started playing on the
Saints junior team before moving up to the senior team before the end of his
Grade 10 season. He was ecstatic that he gave football a try.
“It was just the team,” said Komarnicki. “You have 12 guys
out there and all working together.
“Obviously, I like the physicality. I hadn’t played a
physical sport like a contact sport until football. It was just unique having
special teams and all that.
“It was just all around the whole just the makeup of football
was definitely what caught my eyes.”
Komarnicki would help the Saints advance to the Saskatchewan
High Schools Athletic Association’s 5A 12-a-side football provincial
championship game in his Grade 11 season on November 11, 2022. The host Saints
prevailed over the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles 18-15 in that contest at
Saskatoon Minor Football Field.
Komarnicki said his love for football was built due to the
great experience he had with the Saints. As Davidsen was serving as the
Hilltops offensive line coach while coaching the Saints, Komarnicki said the
wheels were put in motion to join the Hilltops.
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| Brody Komarnicki in action for the Saints in 2022. |
“He (Davidsen) didn’t influence it directly,” said
Komarnicki. “I looked up to Donnie in high school, and we always talked about
Hilltops being like a future opportunity.
“I would come to the high school camps, and I loved the
coaching style. Whenever I did talk to “Sarge” (Hilltops legendary head coach
Tom Sargeant), I loved everything I heard and his style of the game and his
views. I agree with it a lot.
“Definitely, it helped like influence in a sense. It is just
they’re so similar. It is just what I know.”
Komarnicki joined the Hilltops following his high school
graduation for the 2024 campaign. By the campaign’s end, he was awarded the
team’s Past Presidents Trophy as the club’s rookie of the year, while also
being named to the PFC’s all-rookie team.
Sargeant said Komarnicki was a pretty natural fit.
“He is one of our toughest football players,” said Sargeant.
“He certainly plays the game the way I appreciate it and the way we appreciate
it.
“What a hard-nosed individual, and he motivates the team
around him. The game plan is going to centre around him at times just like it
will (star running back) Corbin (Ebben). We believe with those two guys being
heavily involved in that run game it is only going to make it better instead of
having one of them on the bench.”
Sargeant said Komarnicki came to the Hilltops with a solid
base in the game having played for the Saints.
“He (Komarnicki) got coached the right way,” said Sargeant.
“Any BJM player that has come into our system, boy, they’ve been game ready,
and they’ve been able to handle all the moments.
“It has been great to have high school coaches coach with
you. It keeps you connected to what is going on there as well. When you have a
coach that has coached him, it helps you recruit him here as well.”
Sargeant added Komarnicki continued to improve working with
Hilltops running backs coach Andre Lalonde. Back in the day when Lalonde was a
Hilltops running back graduating as a player in 2013, he earned the nickname
“the Bowling Ball” playing the same physical style Komarnicki does.
“Andre is an outstanding running backs coach,” said
Sargeant. “You just can tell by the development of our running backs over the
years.
“He (Lalonde) has got a system. He has got a format that
week in and week out is tried and true. It is tested on game days.
“They (the Hilltops running backs) have got the right mentor
in Andre. If we’re talking about special teams, Andre is my special teams
coordinator, and Brody has been one of our top special teams players too. Not
only does he (Komarnicki) play well on offence, he plays outstanding on special
teams too, so what a true football player.”
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| Brody Komarnicki (#20) dives over a pile for a first down. |
Komarnicki has a pretty lengthy thank you list when it comes
to those who have helped him during his time with the Hilltops. It includes
Sargeant, Davidson, Lalonde, Ebben and David Collins, who was a star running
back who graduated from the team after last season.
The 20-year-old power back said Lalonde has been helping him
refine his game while continuing to emphasize Komarnicki’s strength in hitting
the hole hard.
“I never had seen his film, but I have heard that me and him
are pretty similar in that sense,” said Komarnicki. “He definitely encourages
it.
“He adds just little things, little details that might take
that five-yard gain, six-yard gain to like a 15-to-20-yard gain. That is what
I’ve been trying to add in the most is the next step, because you can always
improve.”
Komarnicki said his sophomore season last year was an
amazing highlight. He was proud of how his team persevered in the campaign.
That included going through an opening game blowout loss to
the Rifles in Winnipeg and making a 30-27 comeback overtime victory in the PFC final
over the Thunder in Regina after falling behind 24-9 to their provincial rivals
with 10:51 remaining in the fourth quarter.
After the win over the Thunder, the Hilltops returned home
to SMF Field and downed the Kelowna, B.C., based Okanagan Sun 21-18 in the CJFL
championship game – the Canadian Bowl. That marked the Hilltops 24th
CJFL title.
“Last year, it was an insane feeling,” said Komarnicki. “(We
had) ups and downs.
“That Regina game was insane. There was definitely a lot
that we faced, but we overcame it. That is kind of what our coaches train us to
do.
“They do a great job doing that and teach us not to give
up.”
This season, Komarnicki has become a one-two punch at
running back with Ebben, who is playing out his final season of CJFL eligibility.
Komarnicki said it has been a good development year as he picks up more work in
the running game compared to past seasons.
“I’m just trying to apply all that I’ve learned in the past
couple of years here,” said Komarnicki. “It is like trial and error for me
right now just seeing what works, what I see out there and getting the vision
working.”
As the Hilltops set to embark in playing the CJFL’s
post-season in 2026, they have once again encountered their share of adversity.
Komarnicki believes his squad will rally together to make another run at a CJFL
title.
“I know that we’ll put it together, because we’re putting in
that work now and putting in all that stuff behind the scenes that people don’t
see,” said Komarnicki. “It is not just confidence, because I’m saying it is.
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| Brody Komarnicki believe the Hilltops can make a long playoff run. |
“I have total confidence from what I see from the coaches in
the past few years and how everyone here talks and meetings and film. You can
just tell everyone here knows we have it. We just need to put it together.”
This piece first appeared in the Saskatoon Hilltops game program on October 4, 2026.
