By: Mike Still
Feature photo: Dane directing traffic during practice in 2017. Photo by Perry Bergson.
Brady Dane eats, sleeps and breathes Westman football.
The former offensive lineman began his career at age 12 in the Westman Youth Football Association (WYFA) before transitioning to Vincent Massey High School. The year after he graduated – 2010 to be exact – was the first year Westman fielded a team in the Manitoba Major Junior Football League (MMJFL). He’s been a fixture ever since.
A player for three seasons, Dane was key in helping the Wolverines remain competitive against high level talent from Winnipeg’s St. Vital, Transcona, St. James and North End-based teams. The squad posted four wins in all three years that he was part of the team, engraining a firm culture along the way.
Once his playing career ended, Dane took over as Westman’s lead guy. He’d already been coaching in the WYFA and also with Massey, so the transition seemed like a natural fit.
“Basically all of our coaches now are guys who played in those early years,” Dane says.
“We developed such a strong team bond and a strong chemistry. Guys whose weddings I’m going to now are guys that I met playing on the Wolverines. We sort of all came together and formed some bonds that have lasted to this day.”
Dane is a players’ coach. As someone who is fairly similar in age to his athletes – and in the case of last season, had two guys on the team who he’d suited up with in his last year of MMJFL eligibility – he understands and relates to their grind. This was particularly notable in 2017 when Westman won the league’s Coaching Staff of the Year award, while Moosomin, Saskatchewan native Cole Easton took home the league MVP and Most Outstanding Defensive Player awards.
“I think our league is such that we’re not necessarily running boot camps here. The old school angry coach approach doesn’t necessarily work. It’s the player’s team. It’s what they want to make of it and we will always go as far as they want to take it,” Dane says.
“When we’ve had success, I always will defer to the players. They take it as far as they can and we’ve had some great players, such as Cole Easton, who has won multiple league awards. There’s some really great players who are really great leaders as well and help establish the culture.”
Dane noted that the team typically carries about 40 players per year and is invaluable to the Westman community as the only true option for players post-high school who don’t want to make the trek out to Winnipeg to continue their playing careers. He also contacts the head coaches of all of the teams in the Rural Manitoba Football League (RMFL) to ensure that their seniors can continue to further their passion for the game.
“It’s just a great opportunity to continue playing the game. It is that kind of game where there isn’t a beer league everywhere or leagues all over the place that you can join. It’s a limited window and even when I graduated, there was no Wolverines team. If you weren’t playing on a junior roster or a U SPORTS roster, there was no option for you.
And even with the junior and the U SPORTS options, there was nothing locally. It just gives the guys such a great opportunity to continue playing the game and again you build those bonds and connections.”