Football teams from both Lloydminster Comprehensive and Holy Rosary are headed to Fort Mcmurray for the provincial finals.
Its been 23 years since the Lloydminster Comp Barons won a title at provincials, they look to take one home this weekend. The Barons eventually reached back to the top advancing to the North Final in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, they advanced to the Alberta Bowl losing to Foothills 21-0. They entered the 2018 season #1 in Tier II ranking carrying that spot going undefeated in the regular season. Barons Head Coach Aaron Harper says the 23-year provincial title drought is not on his mind before the big game.
“There is a lot of stuff you can think about leading up to the game like we were in the same situation last year and didn’t win and I think it would have been just as crazy then, but you can’t really control that stuff you just got to go out there and treat it like a normal game and hopefully that you play your best.”
This year marks the fourth season the Holy Rosary Raiders have met with the Cochrane Cobras in the Tier III provincial finals. The Raiders have their work cut out for them playing against a team with 13 Tier III provincial championships, competing in the finals for 28 straight years. Holy Rosary came close to knocking the Cobras off the top of the mountain last year in a 21-14 loss.
Harper says it will be good for the city having both teams come home with the top prize.
“It’s obviously a testament to what our minor football coaches are doing and some of the athletes we’re putting out. We were in the same spot again last year and neither of us came home with a trophy so it would be really nice if we both came home successful and I think we are in a good spot to do that.”
Holy Rosary will face the Cobras 11 AM and the Lloyd comp Barons will take on the Knights at 2:30 pm. Both games will take place at the SMS Equipment Stadium on Saturday.