By: Mike Still (@mikestill94)
Feature photo: Fort Garry celebrates after winning the 2013 MMJFL title. Photo by the MMJFL.
After a three-year hiatus, the Fort Garry Lions Football Club are looking to get back into the game at the major junior level.
The decision to field a team in the Manitoba Major Junior Football League (MMJFL) for 2019 was spearheaded by long-time Lions coach Mike Sosiak, with support from fellow veterans of the sport such as Wes Mueller, Jeff Kerr and Mike McCheyne.
“There is an option to play after high school. And if you either can’t or don’t want to make that commitment to a junior program, this is a great opportunity,” Sosiak says.
“We’re looking at two or three practices a week in the later evenings. We want to be able to accommodate the fact that you’re working late or are in school. We’ve got a really good atmosphere here. We’ve got a good coaching staff with experience that have coached at senior competitive levels as well.”
This isn’t the first time that Sosiak and company have stepped up to fill a void in the southwest Winnipeg football community. In 2014, members of the group created the Southwest Wolves, which was a co-op arrangement at the midget level that brought in athletes from both Fort Garry and the St. James Rods who might not have gotten the chance to play otherwise due to low numbers at their respective clubs.
Long story short, these gentlemen are passionate about the game and have a desire to expand the options for players in the 18-23 age group who might otherwise considering hanging up the cleats if their university or junior dreams weren’t fulfilled.
“The one advantage to majors football is we’re not looking at 60-80 player rosters. We’re looking at 30-40 players rosters. You’re going to get to play. And you’re going to get to play with the guys that you played with before,” Sosiak added.
“It’s an opportunity to, for lack of a better term, have that last shot to play. In some cases it’s that last opportunity to get together with the guys that you’ve played with before.”
This thought process worked perfectly for the Lions in both 2013 and 2014 when they claimed back-to-back MMJFL titles, the program’s first in over 30 years at the time.
Those two rosters contained a significant number of former Grant Park Pirates who were hungry for one final shot to ball out together. The teams included players such as 2011 CTV Bowl winners Dustin Ellis-Kyle and Jordan Birrell as well as fellow standouts Christoff Hasselfield, Robert Jackson and Brady Joyal.
“Majors was far and away the most fun I ever had playing football,” Hasselfield, who started playing the game when he was nine says.
“Lions was a unique opportunity for me as I got to play one last time with former teammates from Grant Park such as Jordan and Dustin and also many guys I played Crescentwood with when I started playing football like Cole Hamlin and Hiatt Abendscoen.
I still stay in touch with a handful of the players and when I run into old teammates I haven’t seen in awhile we pickup right where we left off. Definitely some of my fondest memories playing the sport came from my time playing with the Lions.”
Sosiak says the team is currently in the process of registering players and is hopeful he will have a roster to fill out by the end of the month, meaning there is still plenty of time to join the rush. For more information contact majorleague@fortgarrylions.ca.