The Edwin Parr Composite High School Pacers tier two football team lost their final game of the season last Saturday for the Consolation Cup against the tier one Bonnyville Voyageurs.
“We ended up losing 34-20, but the game was closer than that,” head coach Pete Burden said.
The Pacers won the tier two championship Oct. 26 to remain undefeated in their league.
However, this past Saturday in Bonnyville, they were playing out of their league.
Burden also stated that in Bonnyville, there are peewee and bantam football teams, which prepare the high school players for success.
“A lot of their kids are starting at seven years old,” he said. “It was a big team, and there is a reason they split the (Wheatland Football) League in two tiers.”
Burden said the team made a few mistakes, and that cost them some points.
“Our Grade 12s were pretty good, but when we had to put a younger kid in, you are asking a kid who is in his first year of playing to play against someone who has been playing for five to 10 years,” Burden explained. “That is where the downfall was.”
Burden said the boys played well, and they achieved their main goal this season.
“Overall, we told the boys that our biggest goal this year was to win the tier two championship,” he said. “We were able to do that undefeated. Had we won this, it would have been icing on the cake.”
Burden told the players this loss doesn’t take away from the season they played.
“For a lot of the Grade 12s, being their last game, it was pretty disappointing to end that way, but that it the way it is,” he said. “At the beginning of the year, I put a poster up in the dressing room, and it said, ‘Leave your ego at the door, and we will win as a team.’ The team has to come first.”
Burden said the players bought into the motto.
“They weren’t worried about stats or who was doing what,” he said. “They played as a team the whole year.”
Burden said season-wise, the players were fantastic, and the fans were also pretty great.
“We actually had more fans than Bonnyville did,” he exclaimed. “People travelled and supported the team all year long.”
This year, the team will graduate 17 Grade 12 students, and the team will have to work hard next year to recruit players.
Terry Smith, the assistant coach, is retiring, so Burden said the Pacers will also be looking for another coach.
This Thursday, the team will play one last game, this one against the coaching staff and parents at 4 p.m. at EPC.
