BMF peewee Bucks win KFL title

“It was amazing,” peewee Bucks head coach Paul Fransoo said. “They really came together. It’s exactly what you need as a coach and as a team, is for everybody to just get on that same wagon and ride it home. It was a great thing for these kids. Lots of smiles. Tons of smiles. Parents, everybody, just very, very excited that inside of a three-year deal we made it to the final and then we brought it home.”

“We managed to find those holes in the fourth quarter,” he added. “It was a little bit of a surreal kind of thing, watching them do it, watching them overcome adversity to fight back. Because they had us, they had us down in the third.”

Fransoo called the Bucks defensive performance “lights out” and said it was a total team effort.

Unlike some of the other top teams in the league who often rely on one or two star players, the Bucks had 14 returning players who all played a role in the championship, Fransoo said.

Part of what set this team apart was a willingness to take proper direction from the coaching staff.

“How they responded to the coaching…made a huge difference in getting ourselves together right from the start of the season,” Fransoo said. “Any of those kids, it didn’t seem to matter what we asked them to do. Once they recognized that’s what they needed to do, they just did it. There was no back talk. Nobody questioned anything. They just said, ‘OK, I’ll go do that.’ And this is what you get.”

On their way to the final, the Bucks had to defeat the Ledingham Steelers in the semifinal in not only cold, but also windy and snowy conditions.

Compared to that game one week earlier, the conditions for the final were fairly tame, despite it hovering around minus-10 degrees.

“The wind stayed down, which was good,” Fransoo said. “The weird part about it is I’ve been asked since yesterday about the weather and nobody said anything. Nobody said anything about being cold. Nobody said anything about ‘Oh, it’s a snow covered field.’ Nothing. It didn’t even enter into their minds. It was just football. It was just the way it’s going to be. And they did it.

“That business of practicing in that kind of thing and having your kids prepared [helped too].”

Fransoo also credited the parents for playing their part in the team’s success.

“Coaches build players, but parents are bulding people, and that group of kids are a great group of people to be around,” Fransoo said. “I love being with those kids. They’re a really, really special group of guys there.”

Next season, Fransoo said it will feel more like a building year, with many players not eligible to play in the peewee division anymore. But they should still be able to compete.

There is also a bantam division in the KFL, but it’s unclear right now if the Bucks will roster a bantam team.

“I’m not sure,” Fransoo said when asked about the possibility of a bantam team. “There’s a lot that has to happen for us to be able to put that together.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

BMF peewee Bucks win KFL title

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