HUMBOLDT — Although the Humboldt Collegiate Institute football team battled, it saw its season come to an end Saturday.
On the road, the Mohawks fell 43-15 to the Delisle Composite School Rebels. Now the Delisle team and the Martensville High School Royals advance to the provincial playoffs as representatives of Nine Man Conference Four. HCI ends the season with an 0-5 record.
“I feel like there definitely was some heart shown (Oct. 23),” said coach Logan Seipp, who guides HCI’s receivers and slotbacks. “It’s been a pretty tough season. … Coming into a playoff game not winning a game, a lot of teams would just kind of give up and quit. We didn’t see that from our team (Saturday). We saw a lot of guys completely giving everything they’ve got, which was awesome.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mohawks did not play a nine-man season in 2020. Between the senior and junior teams, they only got in a handful of six-man contests before things were shut down. Seipp explained that a lot of learning about the game and the team’s systems was needed this season.
“We took some pretty big steps in understanding why we do some things and physically being able to do things like blocking and turning an end the right direction,” he said. “We made some very big steps in those areas this year. Even though our record did not show it, we had a lot of improvement in our football skills and knowledge of the game this year.”
The loss brought to an end the high school football careers of about a dozen Grade 12 players.
“We’ve had some very strong leadership in those roles, which was huge this year and we’ll definitely miss that next year,” Seipp said. “Some new guys are going to have to fill some big shoes.”
The Mohawks have been developing its younger players this season through junior games and jamborees. Seipp said the focus of the offseason will be on strength and conditioning training to come into next season physically prepared.
“We’re still very hopeful and looking forward to next year and the future this football team is going to have,” he said.
Senior Girls Win
The HCI senior girls volleyball team won the Lanigan tournament last weekend. The team defeated the host Lanigan Central High School squad in three sets in the finals. HCI got past Watrous’ Winston High School in the semifinals in two sets.
“The team played extremely well,” coach Jarrod Regush said. “We faced injuries this past week and had a player who was unable to make it this weekend. A couple key players really stepped up at the tournament and played positions they were not used to. Sage Pylot and Hannah Neville were the two players that had to step out of their comfort zone. Both of them played excellent.”
Senior Soccer
The HCI senior boys team lost last weekend to Martensville 4-2 on the road in the regional playoffs.
“It was a great game and the boys played hard the entire time,” coach Nicole Unrau said. “We are really proud of them.”
This wrapped up the team’s season. On the girls side, HCI and Lake Lenore are slated to play in the league finals.
