AA Mid-season Review

Windsor Dukes

Despite having a tough pre-season schedule, the undefeated Dukes have come out looking like the defending Champions that they are. The key for the season so far was the come from behind win vs #3 Sands in Week 3. They faced some true adversity for the first time in a long while but were able to overcome the Sands Defense and play smart football. The success of the Dukes starts and ends with Outstanding RB Gabe Ephard. The highly scouted Ephard is as sure a shot as any to make it big at the next level. With so much attention focused on Ephard it’s easy to overshadow the great supporting cast around him. Most important being the O-line and D-line that are incredibly athletic and bottom line is that they make plays. I would agree with most pundits that the Dukes would be a Top 5 team in AAA this year with the team that they have. There are only a couple of teams that could match the Dukes this year, therefore anything but another Championship this season would be a major upset.

Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers

The emergence of the Panthers from first-year team last year to Championship contender has been exciting for fans to watch so far this season. The Panthers started the season off with a bang by exacting revenge on Barsby in their grudge match from last year’s playoffs which saw the Panthers eliminated on their home turf. Since that big week 1 win, the Panthers have reeled off another 4 wins outscoring their opponents 221-25 remaining undefeated in the process. The team is led by the “Four Horsemen” made famous now by Howard Tsumura’s article in the Province, Jordan Willetts, Bruce Warbinek, Jesse Deidale and Craig Ewing. Remember the name Jordan Willetts, the standout Senior QB tops the list of top QB prospects in all of BC. Easily the favorites now to win the tough Georgia Strait Conference, the Panthers are thinking big come playoffs, Championship big.

Sands Scorpions

There was much hype regarding the introduction of newcomer Sands to the AA ranks this season. They have a seasoned head coach in Ron Uyeyama, a talented group of players with plenty of Community football experience, and plenty of support from the school and fans. The Scorpions lived up to all the hype and more with impressive wins over Washington State’s Oroville, and AAA Carson Graham. Perhaps the highlight of the season so far was giving defending Champion Windsor Dukes a scare leading 7-0 at halftime. The smothering defense has been the signature so far for this Scorpions squad. They have more than enough size and athleticism both on the line and in the linebacking core. Offensively, the Scorpions are a run first team with RB Justin Kardash leading the way. If the Scorpions can make all the pieces fit together in time, they could go all the way.

Contenders

The transition from AAA to AA has been a successful one so far for the Mt Douglas Rams. The Rams expect to make the playoffs this year and they’ve lived up to those expectations so far. With talent and experience on both sides of the ball, the Rams are improving week to week with their sole loss against AAA Timberline. The Rams will be in the mix when the playoffs roll around.

The Barsby Bulldogs have a reason to be optimistic this season. RB Tyler Bates is perhaps the most underrated running back in all of BC. Highlight of the Bulldog's season so far was the win over cross-town rival Ballenas. The Bulldogs will battle Sands for top spot in the South Fraser Conference.

Ballenas is a competitive team that can’t be ruled out come playoff time, RB Justin Andrushko is on his way to shattering all kinds of rushing records. If there was a most improved team award, that would go to Mission, a playoff win would complete a magnificent turnaround from last season. Fulton has separated itself from the rest of the Okanagan conference opponents as the team to beat. Rounding out the rest of contenders are Hugh Boyd, Vanier, and Frank Hurt. All are expected to make the playoffs, anything more would be icing on the cake.

Disappointments

Luckily there haven’t been many disappointments to speak of so far in AA. The obvious being the folding of 3 Okanagan teams, first went Norkam, then went Kalamalka, and finally Quesnel Correlieu packed it in. Should we be entirely surprised? I guess not, but still disappointing nonetheless.

With all the blowouts going on this season and talk of expansion for next season, there are rumblings of a possible reorg for the BCHSFA in 2006. I personally don’t like the idea of a Premier league but I think creating another division like Single A would be appropriate. We’ve seen games like Nanaimo vs Cowichan be very competitive. This would also encourage new teams to join at the Single A level and build towards AA or AAA. Let’s face it, with only 5-6 regular season games, wouldn’t it be much more exciting for everyone involved if all 6 games were extremely competitive?? Instead of Windsor vs Gulf Islands and N Surrey vs Lord Tweedsmuir, we would get more Windsor vs Lord Tweedsmuir, and N Surrey vs Gulf Islands matchups. Put it this way, if the highlight of the season for Windsor is the pre-season (excluding playoffs of course) and the highlight of the season for Gulf Islands is the pre-season, you’ve got a problem. Anyways, now that I’ve got myself going on this topic, I’ll discuss my proposal in another article, stay tuned.