The MUCC Comets players and coaching staff pose for a championship-winning team photo on a frozen MUCC football field (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff).

By Aaron Schulze

Comets claim crown

MUCC Comets win third football provincial championship in eight years

Nov 12, 2019 | 8:14 AM

The motto for Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate’s (MUCC) Comets football team is “once you’re through improving, you’re through.”

For the entire 2019 season, the Comets didn’t stop improving, winning games via lopsided scores all the way until the 4A nine-man provincial championship game on Saturday, Nov. 9 against Martensville High School.

Against an undefeated Martensville crew that had a plus 150-point differential in the regular season, the Comets escaped the first half with a 37-1 lead.

Dave Rogers, head coach of the Comets football team, said his players knew they hadn’t won anything yet after one half. They knew Martensville was more than capable of scoring 28 points in a quarter like the Comets did in the first.

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“[Our players] came today prepared mentally with the intensity to impose their will on their opponents,” Rogers told northeastNOW. “We asked them if they were ready to play football and it was ‘yes coach’ in a loudness and timbre in the response that I hadn’t heard all season, maybe not in a long time. It showed from the first whistle through to the end of the game.”

The Comets and Martensville cancelled one another out with a 14-14 score in the second half. The final score was 51-15 for the Comets, as they won their first provincial championship since 2014; their third in eight seasons.

Even though winning by nearly 40 points became a norm for the Comets in 2019, Rogers was still surprised at the championship game’s point spread.

“I knew we had a high-powered offence and we’d score some points,” he said. “We expected their offence which had been very similar to ours to score, but hats off to Coach Russell and his defence for the way they prepared. The defence probably played the best game they played this year.”

For the 12 players expecting to graduate from MUCC after the 2019-20 academic year, there’s no better way to conclude their secondary school playing careers than with a provincial championship.

However, some of MUCC’s Grade 12’s could move on to play post-secondary football, whether it be in the Canadian Junior Football League or for a Canadian university. Rogers mentioned Lance Barnett, Mason Gordon-Danku, and Ty Milne as some of the Grade 12’s who can move to the next level of football.

After going 6-0 in the regular season and winning all three of their post-season games by nearly 40 points on their way to a provincial championship, Rogers isn’t sure where this season ranks compared to other Comets teams he’s coached because they’re all different.

“I’m proud of every team we’ve coached,” he said. “[The 2019 team] definitely maximized the potential of their team. This is one of the best offences we’ve ever coached; we had four exceptional, quality athletes on offence. On defence, we had great kids and played team defence.

“It’s difficult to compare one championship team to another, or to maybe a team that could have been champions. I try to avoid those comparisons, but one thing that really sets this group apart from what I’ve seen is the tightness of everybody on the team. It’s not the seniors or the juniors, this year we’re really the Melfort Comets.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow