Pincher Creek Voice: 2014 Pincher Creek Mustangs Awards

Friday, November 14, 2014

2014 Pincher Creek Mustangs Awards

2014 Graduating Mustangs with coaches and club President

Mustangs Booster Association President Faith Zachar, Coach Todd Merrick, Joey Jackson, Coach Jamie Kiffiak, Austin Parker, Coach Dylan Stevens, Teigan Lissel, Coach Dan Crawford, Liam Nazarek, David Shortreed, Coach Alex Oliver, Montana Jones, Coach Tom Holoboff, Justin Albert, Senior Mustangs Head Coach Wayne Alexander

Chris Davis and Coach Tom Holoboff

Pincher Creek's Mustangs Football Association held their annual awards night in the Dale Wentz Memorial Gymnasium at St. Michael's School on Friday evening November 7. The event began with a potluck dinner and then moved into the awards presentations, beginning with the Peewee awards, followed by the Bantam awards, and concluding with the Senior awards. Mustangs Booster Association Vice-President Dan Crawford was MC for the event, with President Faith Zachar and various coaches taking turns at speechifying as well. Former Mustangs Cord Delinte and Stephen Hochstein put in an appearance. They play for the Canadian Junior Football Okanagan Sun now.

Since the Peewee awards were first, it seems appropriate to insert here the final report of the season from Peewee Head Coach Coach "Talkative" Tom Holoboff:

Peewee Report

Coach Tom

Well sports fans another exciting year of Mustangs PeeWee Football has come to an end. The thrills and spills have been had and now is a time to reflect on all the fun that was had.

Final day
C. Davis photos

Saturday November 1 saw the players gather for one last time to test their skills and turn in their equipment. Each skill is a basic football play that each player should be able to perform. The players start with a basic football throw through a tire. Each player had 3 throws with Caleb "Catman" Jones being successful on the first try, "Bullet" Brody Walter Walter successful on the second try and "Cutter" Lance Palao successful on the third attempt. Next was running pass patterns with a 5 and in, 5 and out and 5 and slant. Not only is Gus "The Meat" Halibert an awesome centre and snapper, but he managed to snag all three of the passes tossed to him. Next up is everyone's favourite, the bear crawl. The players must bear crawl (on hands and feet but knees or elbows may not touch the ground) through five bags, touch a pylon at the end then block the coach for 12 yards to four seconds ahead of "Hands" Grace Kirkness with "Eyes" Gareth Kaack coming in third.

Grace Kirkness does the Bear Crawl

The running back dash was next where the player receives a hand off from the coach, weaves through five bags then dashes for 40 yards. Cutter Lance danced through this with the fastest time of 10.45 seconds, Caleb "Catman" Jones pawed his way into second with a time of 10.65 and "Hands" Grace Kirkness showed swift feet as well at third with a time of 11:31. The last event is most everyone's favourite - The Pit Showdown. This pits player vs player, where the players lay on their back between two bags, the coach throws the ball to one of the players, and the player with the ball must run past the bags while the player without the ball tries to tackle the other within the bags. With the win to stay in format, Grace "Hands" Kirkness felled all that dared to face her to win the Pit Showdown, "Eyes" Garath Kaank fell in the final to Grace with Gus "The Meat" Halibert taking the consolation match against "Gunner" Trent Metcalfe. As the player was eliminated from the event they were sent to turn in their equipment and the curtain closed on another season of Mustangs Football.

Peewee Mustangs Awards

Coach Tom

The following Friday was the final feast and awards banquet. Always a great time as the players from all three teams join to share a meal and stories of their successes on the field. Always the coaches dilemma is which of the players is most deserving of a award. As is every year many of the players were deserving of an award but unfortunately the coach must pick one of them, here are the coaches picks for 2014

Most Improved: Justin "The Equalizer" Nelson
Also pictured: Coaches Jeremy Nelson, Mark Barber, and Tom Holoboff

Justin showed a steady improvement through out the year and will be looked to next year to step up and provide leadership for the PeeWee Mustangs

Rookie of the Year: Johnny "Flash" Parker

In his one and only season as a PeeWee Mustang Johnny proved to be a quick study playing some of the more difficult positions. A beautiful interception for a touch down was Johnny's highlight of the season.

Receiver/Running Back: Grace "Hands" Kirkness

Grace returned to the PeeWee Mustangs halfway through the year and caught a number of passes during game action. Coach will miss Grace.

Offensive Lineman: "Ironman" Curtis Giesbrecht

Curtis is the steady Eddie of the team. Not flashy, never into showmanship, just the guy to get the job done. A perfect offensive lineman who has not missed a down of football due to injury since joining the PeeWee Mustangs

Defensive Back: Evan "Hitman" Malhi

Evan is small in stature but makes up for it with fearless hits. Fear is not in Evan's vocabulary, "just let me play, Coach".

Defensive Line: Ty "Real Deal" Anderson

Ty was one of two defensive ends that made every quarterback and running back we played happy to see the end of the game. He could have easily shared the Best defensive award with...

Best Defensive Player: "Gunner" Trent Metcalfe

...who I felt really found his position at defensive end. Trent and Ty made a real menacing team terrorizing many quarterbacks and running backs trying to get away from Gus

Offensive Star: "Bullet" Brody Walter

Brody shared the quarterback duties with Gunner Trent for most games. Brody has a natural talent that will take him as far as he challenges himself to go. Always quick to respond, Brody could always put a smile on coaches face

Heart Award: "Catman" Caleb Jones

Caleb played many positions and could/would do anything the coaches asked. One of the many Jones boys I have coached, I am sad to see Caleb move up as it seems I have always had him around the team with his older brothers blazing a football path before him.

Team Spirit: Gus "The Meat" Halibert

Gus led the team both on and off the field. He is one of the hardest hitters I have ever coached and as true gentleman as you will ever meet. I will miss the giggle after each play.

Most Valuable Player: "Cutter" Lance Palao

Lance was the running back and middle linebacker. Scoring most of the teams touchdowns and making a majority of the defensive tackles, he was a valued player. Never once did Lance put himself above the team or question when he was asked to do something other than those two positions (however he did make sure I knew he was the running back - the only running back). My favourite quote this season came from Lance "Coach you know why I am running so well? I watched Jon Cornish on YouTube, that's why".

Each and every player this year deserved an award for outstanding play and bravery. Even if they are not listed above, each and every player had to stand up and play great every game. With only 14 players we could not have anyone miss playing time due to injury.

Thanks Stamps!

So thanks to the Calgary Stampeders for their support of minor football across southern Alberta. Thank you so much to Jeremy Nelson and Mark Barber for helping me herd the cats all season, without you there is no PeeWee football. Thank you to Faith and all the other Mustang Football family for your support during the year.

Until next season this is coach Tom reminding everyone that every day is a great day for football.

"We made up for it in heart what we didn't have in numbers." - Coach Tom Holoboff

Bantam Mustangs Awards

In his preamble to handing out awards Bantam Mustangs Coach Head Coach Travis Liscombe thanked his coaching staff, and also lauded three players who didn't make it through the season due to injuries - Kyle Speight, Jaegar Hann, and Jordan Hochstein.* He also thanked Trent Metcalfe and Grace Kirkness of the Peewee team for stepping up to help with the numbers. "Grace coincidentally made some of the best tackles early in the season," he said. He also lauded the rest of his players, saying "Mustangs players are the most rounded football players, because there's not many of us." One award winner not pictured below was French exchange student George Valentin, who was named Defensive Back of the year. He's back in France now. Salut from Alberta, George.

Most Improved: Isaac Webb

Heart Award: Tristan Liscombe

"I dragged this kid off the field a lot this year. He got hit a lot, high an low. - Travis Liscombe

Defensive Lineman of the Year Tyron Holloway

Rookie of the Year Liam VanEe

Liam kicked a 30 yard field goal in Bantam this year. - Travis Liscombe

Offensive Lineman of the Year Tysen Teneycke

He always showed up for practice and always gave 100%. - Travis Liscombe

Patrick Zachar Team Spirit Award: Beau Walter

He always showed up for practice, and he always had a smile. - Travis Liscombe

MVP, Running Back of the Year, Defensive Star, Offensive Star: TJ Metcalfe
With Assistant Coaches Alex Oliver and Stan Walker and Head Coach Travis Liscombe

TJ Metcalfe

He made 80 to 90% of the tackles. He scored every touchdown. - Travis Liscombe

Senior Mustangs Awards

Winning awards but absent from the ceremony:

Coach Dan Crawford and Ben Riviere

Coach Dan Crawford and Tyler Riviere

Rookie of the Year Tyler Riviere (who will be playing for Team Alberta in Texas in January).
Most Dedicated: Ben Riviere

Senior Mustangs Head Coach Wayne Alexander began by thanking Faith Zachar and his coaching staff of 7.

"One thing I noticed today when I was here is that this is no longer just a football team. When we started 19 years ago it was a High School team. In a few years, Bantams and Peewees... but beyond that, now we have players who have played at a higher level," he said, mentioning Cord Delinte and Stephen Hochstein. "It's nice to see that what we're producing here can play at a higher level. This year's group, we're going to be graduating 8. I'm sure that there's some in that group that are going to be playing either Junior football or University football."

Coach Alexander said it was a great season despite the team's poor showing on the scoreboards throughout the season. "Why was it a great year? One of the reasons was 33 people in uniforms. That is a football program. We stood before games in awe a few times at this. This is what we've been waiting for."

"Our physicality was second to none."

Most Improved: Kyle Knowlton

Coach Dylan Stevens said Kyle Knowlton was really beginning to understand "the mental aspect of this game".

Coaches Award: David Shortreed

Team Spirit: Liam Nazarek

He's a leader on and off the field. - Jamie Kiffiak

Top Lineman: Austin Bruder

A phenomenal player. He came prepared this year to play football. - Jamie Kiffiak

Top Offensive and Special Teams: Montana Jones

We came so close so many times. Montana tried so hard every play. He did whatever it took to get through. - Dan Crawford

Every time he was on the field he made something happen. - Todd Merrick

Most Valuable Player and Top Defensive: Justin Albert

I coached his first and last game as a Mustang. He comes to the football field with the attitude that he wants to play. - Tom Holoboff

Our Mustang team is simply strong when he's on the field. - Wayne Alexander

Justin Albert also won a League Defensive Back award in Lethbridge the week before the Mustangs Awards were held.

Faith Zachar

Mustangs Booster Club President Faith Zachar

Next year we're going to be 20 years of playing football. Don't know what we're going to do yet, but there's something coming. All that is because Faith started us out. - Dan Crawford

We had 46 kids on our first High School team, which was a big mistake because you're supposed to start with Peewees and work up. We started with Seniors and worked down, but it worked out. - Faith Zachar

If you want to support your kids, get out and do your volunteering. - Faith Zachar

Mustang Graduates

Eight Mustangs graduate this year. They were accorded a special ceremony after the regular awards were handed out. Each got a souvenir blue horseshoe and a memory certificate. Two of them at least, Teigan Lissel and Montana Jones, will be trying out for the Okanagan Sun.

Retiring from the Mustangs were:

#20 Justin Albert - Head Hunter award

3 years of Senior Mustangs football
Member of 2012 SAHSFL Tier 4 Championship team
SASFL DHB All-Star
Played his best football (so far) in 2014

#22 Montana Jones - Energizer Bunny award

3 years of Senior Mustangs football
Team Leader and Team Captain
Member of 2012 SAHSFL Tier 4 Championship team
Great hands

#27 David Shortreed - Easiest to get along with award

2 years of Senior Mustangs football
Great attitude and extremely coachable
Well liked by coaches and teammates
Great speed to the outside

#30 Liam Nazarek - Samson (hair) award

3 years of Senior Mustangs football
Team Leader and Team Captain
Willing to play any position at any time against any team
His calm demeanor rubbed off positively on teammates

#32 Teigan Lissel - Biggest Heart award

3 years of Senior Mustangs football
Team Leader
Member of 2012 SAHSFL Tier 4 Championship team
Wore injured #33 Austin Parker's jersey in the last game of the season

#33 Austin Parker - Medication "love you" award

3 years of Senior Mustangs football
Member of 2012 SAHSFL Tier 4 Championship team
Received a serious injury in game three that ended his season,just as he was playing his best football (almost to the moment)
A very supportive big brother

#69 Joey Jackson - Even keel award