CANMORE – “We’re making history out here,” Owen Fisher said excitedly following the Canmore Wolverines victory that placed the high school football team in uncharted territories.
At 4-0, the free-flowing Wolverines have made school history, recording their best start in nearly 25 years of pounding the pigskin up the gridiron in the Bow Valley.
An archive search by Football Alberta confirmed the record.
“Even in their Provincial Championship Year of 2018 they were 2-2 after four games,” said Football Alberta’s executive director Tim Enger, in an email. “Beating both Drumheller and Olds in the same season is something new too.”
The record came in convincing fashion on Saturday (Sept. 28) when the Wolverines bucked the Olds Spartans 39-14 at Millennium Field.
Touchdowns were scored by Fisher, Noah Kimbley-Nicolai, Felix Dansereau, Sam Falconer and Gabe Bongbong.
Wide receiver Bongbong scored an impressive 35-yard touchdown after catching a pass from quarterback Yoshi Dreger and then spun off a tackle and dashed in the six points. Like his teammate Fisher, the wide receiver was also fiery with excitement post-game.
“It is hard to stay grounded, but we just got to remember to stay humble and stay hungry,” said Bongbong.
“We can’t take the foot of the gas pedal. We just have to keep f----- fighting.”
The Wolverines’ offence has clicked this season, posting four straight 30+ point games with many players getting in on the touchdown action. The Wolverines have also defeated the Carstairs Kodiaks (42-0), Drumheller Titans (31-7), and Highwood Mustangs (37-6) this season.
“It doesn’t matter where we play, we’re going to play hard and just win,” said Bongbong.
Notably, adding former Canadian Football League players Randy Fabi and Keith Crawford at the coaching helm has sparked the team’s offence creativity and the boys’ confidence has flourished.
The team’s defence has been a mighty beast in itself, not allowing any team to score a single point in the second half of any game.
The wins and confidence have become a burning fire that the Wolverines haven’t been able to fully capture in some time.
“And the way we’re doing it I’m loving it,” defensive coordinator Spencer Rose said.
One area that has been a big improvement is the team’s mental toughness.
The Spartans were far from out of the game in the first half, scoring two of the first three touchdowns to pressure the Wolverines at home.
Rose said it’s like the team just flips on a switch and they get down to business.
“The big difference from this year as opposed to the past several is after taking a hit like that we’ve gone ‘This is a really good team, I don’t think we can beat these guys,’” said Rose. “Whereas now, we’ve already seen this and we kind of just come back and we get stronger as the game goes.
“It’s been awesome the past several weeks seeing the results.”
It’s been a rough past few years for the team and long-time coach Rose, who’s been with the program through thick and thin. Following Saturday's game, Rose wore a smile on his face that stretched from ear-to-ear.
However, the team is far from achieving its goal.
“Listen, 4-0 is great, but our goal is the conference,” said Rose. “So it’s just telling them congrats on all you accomplished and it’s looking at them and going 'Doesn’t this feel a hell of a lot better than the last few years and this takes a lot of goddamn work and let’s put in that work and let’s keep beating teams’ ... it’s just lit the fire and it’s 'Do you guys like winning? Great. Keep doing things that have allowed us to win to this point.’”
Although the season is off to a strong start, some disciplinary issues have been an recurring with the team, which have resulted in a plethora of penalties. Notably illegal use of hands from grabbing face masks and unsportsmanlike conduct.
On one play following a kick off in the second half, the refs were quick to toss down a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct resulting in a 15-yard penalty against Canmore. Several frustrated Spartans had implored the Wolverines to “stop cussing us out” when the heated moment subsided and the smoke settled.
Rose says that’s a big area to clean up before the next game.
“One thing that we’re going to use as a touchstone point from this game is when it starts getting chippy, when it starts getting jawy, our plan is let them take the 15 yarders and we’ll keep our heads high,” said Rose. “We didn’t quite do that today, but … let’s let them do the stupid stuff.”
Saturday’s win was the final home game of the regular season. The Wolverines’ next three games will be on the road starting Oct. 12 against the Carstairs Kodiaks.