Preseason

High school football season kicks off | OHS grid Blues still a work in progress

In fact those pros and cons will be on display this afternoon when the Blues, now known as the Beaver Brokerage Blues with a new sponsor, host the Leo Hayes Lions at 1 p.m. at MacKenzie Field. The Fredericton High School Black Kats are in Hampton to take on the Huskies this afternoon as well.

There were three Friday games on the league schedule, with Saint John facing Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders, Riverview Royals facing Moncton and Harrison Trimble Trojans up against Odyssee Olympians.

Locally though, it begins in earnest this afternoon at 1 p.m. when the Lions, 0-7 last season, take on the Blues, who were 2-5 a year ago.

OHS did earn a playoff berth but exited quickly, losing to Fredericton High School 26-0.

The game will have a homecoming theme but not for former players instead it will be for members of the armed force recently returned from Afghanistan.

The Blues aren't sure where they're going just yet, but they hope it's upward. A week ago, the coaches weren't even sure who they would have to fill out their new look uniforms with the traditional blue trimmed with a yellow ribbon to show support for the Canadian troops still serving overseas.

Many players weren't available for practice prior to school starting because the military uses a "block leave" system, sending large groups on vacation late in the summer. Many of those families had members of the football team in the family photo. Things were a little bit later than usual this summer because some only recently returned from the Afghanistan mission.

But head coach Rob Wilson likes the look of what he has seen. Now he just needs time to put them all on the same page of the playbook. "I think I have about 10 returning seniors, which is pretty good because last year I just had four," Wilson said. "So actually I'm pretty excited to have ten, and to be honest they are a real good solid group of guys." The one aspect Wilson knows about is offence.

Last year, even when all else failed the Blues could score, and at times score a lot. Last year, for instance, they scored 34 points in their lone meeting against Leo Hayes.

Air Jordan returns, featuring rifle armed quarterback Jordan Heather throwing to veteran receivers Jordan Richards, Chris Hillier and running back Jordan Gardiner. Also back is the offensive line that needs to protect the slightly built Heather.

"That was a very young group on offence last year," Wilson said. "It showed at times. We really could score but in some games we they would just vanish. They did pretty well as a group of grade 11 kids, but now with that year under their belts we have good reason to be excited."

The great unknown is the Blues defence. Once a formidable unit known as the Blue Curtain, it's now very much a new curtain.

"It's a brand new group for the most part," Wilson said. "We will move Jordan Gardiner to linebacker where he did really well at the end of last season, that will actually be his priority. He will combine with (all-star linebacker) Matt Harmon to anchor us.

"Beyond that we will be doing a lot of mixing and matching and after to have some of the O-line guys doing double duty on defence. That's not ideal but it's our best option at this point in the season."

The Oromocto bantam team has been a pipeline of talent over the past three seasons for the Blues but according to Wilson that team has only graduated "five or six" players to the high school program this time around.

"It's a cycle, you can't get 12 guys every year," Wilson said. "Beyond that our new guys are people who have played the game at some other time or some other place. What we are missing this year is the kids from the school who are athletes involved in another sport who come out and surprise us. We don't have any of those kids this year."

Wilson has a total of 28 kids in uniform of which he says "we actually can use 24 of them, we have others that just aren't ready yet." Wilson is both realistic and optimistic as he looks ahead.

"I will tell our guys we aren't going to come out of the gate as one of the better teams in the province," he said. "But we will be a very good team by the time the season ends.

It's just the way this team is built. Give me 20 athletes and we can field a competitive team. Well we have 20 athletes."

The Lions' home opener doesn't come up until Sept 22 when they host the Simonds Seabees of Saint John.

The perrenial powerhouse Black Kats are stray Kats even longer: their home opener doesn't come up until Week 4, Sept. 29 when they also host the Seabees.

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