Football is a team sport powered by individual performances.
As an individual, Rochester native Keith Shologan can be proud of his 2011 Canadian Football Season. Now in his fourth season in the league, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive tackle is a constant threat to enemy ball carriers. With four games left in the season, he has notched 24 tackles and two sacks, putting him within reach of personal bests in both categories and moving his career totals to 83 and 8 respectively.
In short, he has put together a season worthy of a player who was named the most valuable Canadian in last year’s Grey Cup game.
As a team, however, the Roughriders have struggled.
With just four wins and ten losses for eight points, the Green Riders are last in the CFL’s West Division and ahead of only the Toronto Argonauts in the league standings. Earlier in the season they were ahead of the winless British Columbia Lions, but while that team won seven consecutive games to charge to the top of the division, the Riders still haven’t found their footing. And with a playoff spot slipping from their grasp, they’re running out of time.
It’s not the ideal situation to be in at this time of the year, but it’s a challenge Shologan and his teammates are facing head on.
“If there’s a way (to be in the playoffs), we’ll fight for it. No matter the record, you play your best football, whether you have a chance or not,” he said. “We go out to there to win. It’s still football and we still love to play it. All we think about is the next game, because that’s the most important one.”
Shologan was speaking after his Roughriders had lost another game last Monday, this time to the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium. The Saskatchewan defense had a strong game, but the offense never got started and the Eskimos cruised to a 17-1 victory.
In the high scoring CFL, holding your opponents to 17 points is a sure way to be competitive, but the offense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in Edmonton.
But Shologan wasn’t about to point fingers.
“We win and lose as a team. We let them score more points than we did,” he said.
The losing effort couldn’t dim Shologan’s good mood, however. Playing close to home is always special for him, and he pulled some strings to get tickets for his friends and family.
“I love playing in Edmonton. It’s always an emotional game,” he said.
He was also basking in the glow of his recent engagement to Athabasca’s own Anna Husch.
With plenty to celebrate and a career playing the sport he loves, Shologan is a pretty happy guy. But opposing players should still be wary of him on the field, even if he’s smiling.
