Power running back breaks out in third year
with team
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| Brody Komarnicki is having a breakout season with the Hilltops. |
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. |
“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. |
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. |
This piece first appeared in the Saskatoon Hilltops game program on October 4, 2026.
