The first football team in Paul Kane history will huddle up this fall in the Metro Edmonton High School Athletic Association.
"There is a lot of people that really think it's going to be a positive move for our school and it's going to enhance what we already have going here athletically," said Steve Day, head coach of the senior Blues.
Wednesday's announcement was greeted with fanfare by more than 40 players who had signed up to "bleed Blue" for Paul Kane.
"We introduced the new logo and threw a PK T-shirt on the kids to walk around in and they couldn't wait to put it on and walk the hallways proudly," Day said. "They're excited about wearing the school colours and being able to represent their school. They finally get a chance to put on the Paul Kane jersey, just like every other athlete in our school gets to do."
Since the formation of the metro league in 1988/89, Paul Kane students played football for the St. Albert Storm and the last 13 years for the Skyhawks' program at St. Albert Catholic High School (SACHS).
"I really feel those kids that are football players in our school really missed that opportunity to have that experience of playing for their own school," Day said.
The day before the historic announcement, the Paul Kane phys-ed teacher broke the news to the players with the senior Skyhawks and junior Hawks last year that are eligible to play for the Blues and was blown away by their reactions.
"To see the excitement they showed was really neat. They really want to play for their school," Day said.
Experienced roster
The senior roster will be dominated by talented veterans who played for SACHS.
"We do have that base of about 40 kids that have experience. There is other kids in the school that have expressed some interest, and with the crop of Grade 9 kids that's coming up, we've set our numbers for around 50 or so," Day said. "Eventually it would be nice to get to two teams. That's the goal down the road but for this year we're just looking at running that one team."
The former two-time All-Canadian defensive back with the Alberta Golden Bears said the time was right to put a team together.
"We've thrown the idea around for the last couple of years. We looked at the numbers to make sure we were going to have strong enough numbers to have a program that would fly. Looking at the quality of athletes that we do have here, we have a good core that will help get the team off and running in the right direction," he said. "It varies from year to year, but we have between 40 and 50 kids in our school that played football for SACHS. I also looked at the number of kids that I've talked to in my classes that are interested in football but logistically it's too much of a hassle for them to get involved and they kind of shied away from it a little bit.
"We also wanted to make sure everything was kind of lined up so that we were able to do it and do it right and not kind of get halfway through and say we forgot about this or that, so we've been busy putting all the puzzle pieces together."
The price tag to put a high school football team together from scratch has been pegged between $70,000 and $100,000.
"Mr. Dick [Paul Kane's principal] has been looking at budgets so he is taking care of that side of things. There are some grants we're looking at getting through Football Alberta and through community programs, so hopefully we'll get our start-up costs down a little bit," Day said.
The next order of business for Day is putting a coaching staff in place to get the Blues battle-ready for the highly competitive Carr conference.
"People in the school and the community have expressed interest in coaching. The kids are kind of anxious too to see who is coaching and what the staff is going to look like."
Day, 40, played his high school football with the McNally Tigers before spending five years with the Golden Bears. In his last season at the University of Alberta he was drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos and spent a year on their practice roster as a safety.
As a high school coach in Okotoks, Day was part of the coaching staff of the Foothills Falcons during their rebuilding years in the 1990s and was the defensive co-ordinator for their 2000 tier II provincial championship team while serving as co-coach.
He also served four years as the defensive back coach for the Golden Bears.
Big blow to SACHS
While the Blues celebrated the birth of Paul Kane football, the mood was a lot more sober at SACHS. Sam Johnson, head coach of the senior Skyhawks, did his best to put a positive spin on the split between Paul Kane and SACHS.
"It's not bad. It's really not," Johnson said with sincerity. "We knew this day was coming. From day one, 13 years ago, when we first set up the program, Tim [Enger, the first Skyhawks' head coach] made the comment St. Albert should have three teams and there was no reason why they shouldn't.
"It's good for football in St. Albert and the province that we have another team, but it's unfortunate the way it was done."
Johnson was blindsided by the timing of the announcement.
"I was a little shocked, upset and hurt too because we've developed relationships with the boys over there. I love them like sons, all the coaches do. They put their heart and soul into this program for a couple of years and it's disappointing now they're put in situations where they have to make difficult choices."
In a perfect world, Johnson wanted Paul Kane to kick off its first season in 2012 so the SACHS players going into Grade 12 in the fall could finish their high school careers with the program they started with.
"That way there is no hurt feelings and kids aren't thrust in a situation where they've got to make a major life choice," he said. "But you know what? I told my boys it's beyond my control. There is nothing I can do about it. It's wasted time to be upset about it. I'm just more upset that fantastic kids like Adam Sturgess and Matteo Sestito and Nathan Mitchell are thrust into a situation that is unfair to them. I would hope they would have some loyalty to me. I would also hope they would have some loyalty to their friends and to their school and now they're in a no-win situation and I feel so bad for them."
Despite losing roughly half of their pool of players, it's business as normal football-wise at SACHS.
"We're preparing for our season as we always have for the past 13 years. We have our coaching staff in place," Johnson said. "We're going to be in the Carr conference, going right at the big boys toe-to-toe like we always have. When it comes to provincial time, we're going to be looking to make an impact in tier III [instead of tier I in previous years]."
Johnson estimated SACHS averaged between 30 and 40 Paul Kane players per year, junior and senior teams combined. How SACHS will fill that void now remains a mystery.
"We're not going to meet with any of the PK boys. We feel that would be tampering and recruiting and we're not going to do that," he said. "We care about them and we just want what's best for them. They have to make whatever decision they're going to make and we're not going to try and influence them one way or another.
"Are we going to have a 100 kids? Probably not, and we've had those numbers before. What it will do is now it gets me off my keister. I have to do a better job recruiting the Grade 9s out of bantam now. I have to do a better job of hitting our hallways for kids that are maybe on the bubble whether to play or not.
"But overall, personal feelings aside, I think it's a good thing they're having a program."
Good for football
Meanwhile, Bellerose Bulldogs' head coach Chad Hill applauded the move by Paul Kane.
"It will be very interesting to see what will happen. I believe PK is a big enough school with enough athletes to be competitive. How this affects us I'm not sure. Presently, I see it as a positive, not a negative. It will create a very competitive atmosphere for high school football in St. Albert," said Hill, who has players from Sturgeon Composite High School on his junior and senior teams. "I wish coach Day all the best in starting up a new program. I know he has a good group of young men over at PK who will play with passion for him this season."
Norma Smith, the co-ordinator of high school athletics for the metro league, was happy to see another football team in the fold.
"Anytime you get more teams, it's good news," she said. "They've opted to go into our Carr conference, which is certainly great too."
Smith said any high school that is a member of metro can participate in any sport that is offered.
"You just have to commit, prior to the preseason meeting," she said. "I knew they were considering it. Last year they said they were looking more seriously at it so I wasn't surprised. I'm quite pleased that they decided to make the jump. They have a lot of kids and I know a lot of kids played at St. Albert High, so we'll see how that breaks down."
The addition of the Blues, as well two more six-man teams, raises the number of high school football teams in Alberta to 125. In 1989, there were only 69 teams in the province.
