The Melfort Comets Football team are provincial champions.
The Comets routed the Indian Head Broncs, 38-6, this past weekend in the 4A ranks, officially putting the golden cherry on top of the undefeated season cake.
The 9-man team went 9-0 this year, which included a 63-point shutout over the Lumsden Devils and a 35-point shutout over the Delisle Rebels, in their previous two playoff matchups, which created a string of 136 answered points.
Head Coach David Rodgers told northeastNOW the previous success didn’t go to his team’s head, but rather, it emphasized the impact their sustained mentality had done for them all year.
“I think our players bought into the message from the coaches,” he said. “The purpose of football is to improve every day and nothing good is gonna happen without hard work and enthusiasm. The kids adopted the idea that we need relentless effort in order for us to be successful.”
“It’s not the will to win that’s important, everybody has the will to win – it’s the will to prepare to win that is important.”
And while the perfect season and provincial gold are more than impressive, this isn’t something this team hasn’t done before.
In the past 10 years, this is the fourth time it has been done by a Melfort Comets squad: 2012, 2014, 2019 and now, 2022.
This sustained brilliance also seems more impossible when you consider the teams are changing drastically every year.
In fact, this group is seeing 10 grade 12’s graduate this year alone.
However, one thing has remained fairly similar, and that has been the coaching staff.
Rodgers praised his fellow coaches and the dedication of new students every year to focus on one thing in particular… maintaining the culture.
“The culture becomes self-reinforcing, in that, they see the successes that the people ahead of them have had, they’ve heard the messages, and they’ve seen the work and the results of the work,” said Rodgers.
“Great players can make any coach look good, but with good coaching, great players can become exceptional. We’ve had a core group of people for those years that have been willing to put that into our kids and into our program, and it makes quite a difference.”
And one added bonus to this season, which may in fact have also contributed to the club’s success, was the ability to once again, bond and establish relationships off the football field.
Off-season training, Super Bowl watch parties, local camps and even provincial junior and university camps were opened back up and a large portion of this core took every added opportunity.
When asked for a final remark, Rodgers spoke about those opportunities, but more importantly the dedication of the athletes and those most important to them.
“I’d just like to thank the parents, and the fans, and the people who help us. I think we have an exceptional gameday experience, our parent group does a lot to support our kids, and our fans and community are great.”
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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com
On Twitter @BenTompkins_8
