Bulldogs football changing attitude and leadership

By Lethbridge Herald on September 4, 2025.

Herald Photo by JUstin Seward The Winston Churchill Bulldogs practice plays on Thursday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Winston Churchill Bulldogs varsity football team are gearing up for a new 3A- Southland Conference season with  a shift in their attitude and leadership.

The focus this season has been to have an attitude change within  the team.

“ And try and foster that winning attitude instead of coming out and just going through the motions,” said Jonathan Dick, Bulldogs football head coach.

“We wanna make sure guys are working hard and committing to the program and doing everything they can to get some Ws (wins) .”

There has been attitude in the past that was not considered great.

“We’re trying to eradicate that (and) make a few changes in terms of how we run practices,” said Dick.

The Bulldogs are steering away from an all Grade 12 leadership group this season.

“We’ve focused this year on not having all Grade 12s as our captains and our leaders,” said Dick.

“Just because you’re in Grade 12, (it) doesn’t necessarily make you a leader and we’ve doled that out to some other players that have shown us promise.”

The Bulldogs strength will be on the defensive side of the ball this season.

“Defensively, we’re looking not too bad,” said Dick.

“We’ve got some strong D- (defensive) linemen and decent linebackers,”

The Bulldogs have also developed a good running game, and the passing game is still a work in progress.

Winston Churchill is in the Southland League with Willow Creek, W.R. Myers, Brooks and Medicine Hat’s Crescent Heights and McCoy.

“Lots of very well-coached teams and guys that have been playing football for a lot of years, so always looking at a tough schedule,” said Dick.

“We gotta lot of young guys on our team which is always nice,” said Grade 12 player Guet Guet.

“These young guys are going to help the program move forward and with these young guys, we’re gonna get a couple wins.

Guet  has seen Grade 10s that are coming in game ready and taking starting roles and there is a Grade 11 player that is a captain.

“Everything’s looking great,” said Guet.

Churchill will open Southland action against Crescent Heights on Sept. 19.

The Bulldogs played a game against a  Prairie Sky Conference opponent in Medicine Hat and have another game tonight against Catholic Central, and with School Sport Alberta’s change to a classification, Winston Churchill is  classified as a 4A-sized  football school, and those games count towards rankings at the end of the year.