Chinook football team ecstatic to be back on the gridiron

By Lethbridge Herald on September 10, 2024.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Nearly a year after being shut down for the rest of their last season due to four of its players being charged with sexual assault in connection to a fellow player, the Chinook Coyotes high school football team is back on the gridiron for a new season.

“The guys are ecstatic ,” said Nick Straat, Coyotes head coach.

“They’re super happy to be out practicing, playing as a team and getting back to games.”

The team stayed busy throughout the lengthy layoff from the game with players attending camps, offseason training and in the gym.

“There’s only so much (of) that you can do before you really start wanting to be back and playing the game,” said Straat.

The Coyotes worked out two to three times a week.

“(We were)just keeping the team together and focusing on improving as a football team,” said Straat.

There were players that still wanted to improve the team and themselves.

“But there was a lot of players who really wanted to prove how good this team could be this year and put their time in and focus on making themselves and their teammates better,” said Straat.

The Coyotes go into this high school football season with a lot of newer, inexperienced players.

“We’re just sort of taking things slow and trying to get everybody on the same page and we feel like we’re just  going to get better as the season goes on,” said Straat.

Chinook will use a strong offence as their strength this season.

“Our skill positions I think are probably our strongest position on offence,” said Straat.

“We got a quarterback (Dallin) Hall that is calm and really knows what he’s doing in the pocket there and then we’ve got a running back (Taylor Tisdale) who had a phenomenal game last week and just continues to get better as well.”

Challenges will come from the inexperience on the team.

“Just a lack of field time, a lack of game experience and so we’re just trying to give them as much knowledge as possible and  then the rest of that’s  going to have to (be) figured out as we get out on the field and move forward,” said Straat.

Chinook started the season off with a 48-36 win over WR Myers on Sept.6 and will be back on the field to take on Strathmore on Friday at 5 p.m. at U of L Stadium.