Fourteen weeks ago the junior varsity football program at Hugh Boyd secondary school was on the verge of folding. Today, it's three wins away from playing for a provincial championship.
The remarkable turnaround is one of the more satisfying achievements of Bruce Haddow's long and successful coaching career.
The Trojans captured first place in their conference by winning four of five games and will host an opening round playoff game tomorrow afternoon when the Handsworth Royals visit at 3 p.m.
"We are ecstatic to be in this position," said Haddow. "We're just really happy with the way things went."
The future of Boyd's junior team became murky when last school year's teacher labour dispute wiped out spring training. The 10 practice sessions not only helped get the players ready for the fall season, it provided the coaching staff with a good idea what kind of numbers they will have moving forward.
Without that gauge and the fact football has never been an easy sell, despite being the only school in the city to offer it, Haddow was concerned. He also knew he was going to have to take on a greater role with head coach Brock Aura pursuing his master's degree.
"When I left the school in June, I really didn't think there was going to be a junior team," said Haddow.
He told the handful of students who were interested to sign-up for community football so they could at least keep playing.
As the summer unfolded there was indication there just may be a enough players to have a team. Training sessions were scheduled for late August but no more than 14 players turned up - not enough to field a team.
"We probably averaged about 11 players a practice," recalled Haddow. "It was bad enough that I had to cancel our first game against Tweedsmuir. "Still, we didn't want to give up at that point. The thought was if we beat the drum once school was back in, we may just get enough kids to have a team."
The response was better than hoped for. Some players who were part of the Grade 8 team and had sat out a year, decided to come back. The roster grew to a healthy 25 players.
Boyd's lack of preparation time was evident in a 25-0 season-opening loss to Abbotsford's Robert Bateman but the progress and confidence grew from there. The Trojans outlasted Argyle 42-36 then proceeded to win four straight in conference play against Earl Marriott (32-0), Holy Cross (14-12), Seaquam (22-0) and Langley (36-8) to clinch first place. The roster features some promising players including fullback/linebacker Jacob Tubajon and quarterback Gabe Saklofsky.
"By missing 20 practices, it took us half the season to really get into our system," added Haddow.
"We have reset our goal now and to win a playoff game would be huge for this program.
"It didn't look good at all for a while but I really think the entire football program at our school is ready to come back a bit thanks to what this group has accomplished."
