JV football team picking up steam at Maples

Itâ€™s only played two games, but Maples Collegiateâ€™s junior varsity football team is already a hit.

Playing in the Winnipeg High School Football Leagueâ€™s newly formed eight-team JV circuit, the Marauders are off to a 2-0 start.

The biggest problem facing coach Peter Serrette is finding enough equipment for all the students who have been jumping on the bandwagon.

"We started the season at our summer camp with around 25 players," Serrette said the day after a 41-7 win over Sturgeon Heights on Sept. 15. "Now weâ€™re up to 45. We have people constantly joining â€” I had three more today."

The Marauders began the season needing to use some players on both offence and defence, but that is no longer the case. Instead of worrying about the conditioning required to play both ways, now the coaches are focused on figuring out who should be playing which position.

"Most of the guys â€” about 75% â€” have never played football before," Serrette said. "We have a lot of soccer guys and a few basketball guys.

But weâ€™re trying to make the transition really easy for them. Weâ€™re keeping everything pretty simple."

Donâ€™t tell that to Grade 9 student Mathew Grivicic, a football rookie who finds himself the starting quarterback for the Marauders.

"In and out it kind of gets confusing at times," said the Maples resident whose main sport has always been hockey. "I just try to remember what the snap count is and what play youâ€™ve called out."

Grivicic splits time under centre with Joshua Pangman, a Grade 10 student who has plenty of experience at QB with the North Winnipeg Nomads but also plays safety for his school team. In last weekâ€™s win, Pangman had three interceptions to go along with two touchdown passes. He was named the leagueâ€™s offensive player of the week after his strong opening weeks performance in a 13-9 win over Churchill.

"I try to pay attention to what (Pangman) does in practice and try to learn from him," said Grivicic, who is expected to take over the quarterbacking duties full-time next season. "I had no idea I was going to be the starter (this year). I thought I would be a backup benchwarmer."

With the exception of one Grade 10 student who played for the schoolâ€™s varsity team last year, Serrette and his staff decided to keep all grade 9 and 10 players at the JV level. By keeping several players who "could easily start for the varsity team", Serrette made it known that the JV team should be serious about winning and not just developing talent.

"I talked about it with the coaching staff â€” what is the goal? Is it to make varsity team better?" Serrette said. "We do want to do that obviously, but we want the JV team to be as competitive as it can be as well."

Grivicic said the 2-0 start is encouraging, but expects the competition to get tougher as the season wears on.

"Any team always wants to go all the way to the top," he said. "If we always try hard in practice we can get to the playoffs and dominate the rest of the season."