Easton, Wolverines coaches decorated with awards

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2017 (2344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A turnaround season for the Westman Wolverines has landed the team’s veteran leader and coaching staff Manitoba Major Junior Football League awards.

Linebacker Cole Easton was named most valuable player and outstanding defensive player in his fifth and final season with the club, and the Wolverines crew of bench bosses, which along head coach Brady Dane were T.J. Simpson, Eric Barbour, Adam McClelland, Kristian Doherty, Thomas Weber, Gavin Young and Mark Janz, was named coaching staff of the year.

“I was actually very surprised,” Easton said. “I never expected to win. I always kind of told myself that it was one of my goals every year to win a league award and it was something to aim for. But being a defensive player originally from nine-man football coming in and being able to have the season I did, I was pretty surprised, especially with the MVP award, because that usually goes to an offensive player who gets the glory and the touchdowns and stuff. That’s big for a defensive player.”

Easton, who is five-foot-10 and 200 pounds, played football in his hometown of Moosomin, Sask., for one year prior to moving to Brandon to join the Wolverines. Dane said he can’t say enough about Easton, who he is hoping will join the team’s coaching staff next season.

“In every sense he was the heart and soul of the team,” Dane said. “He led vocally, he led by example, he set the culture and carried it on his back. And that’s not even talking about on the field. On the field, he was flying around and in every play.”

Westman joined the five-team league in 2010, going 0-8 that season. After four consecutive four-win seasons from 2011 to 2014, the program fell on hard times, going 1-6 in 2015 and 0-8 in 2016.

The Wolverines rebounded this season with a 4-4 record, eventually losing 44-6 to the St. Vital Mustangs in the semifinals.

“I feel like it’s kind of the culmination of the last three years,” Dane said. “We’ve been a young team without a ton of turnover and you’re seeing guys kind of coming into their own and all of their hard work paying off. And not just as football players: They do so much to build the culture of the team and how they’ve created a real family atmosphere has shone through.”

It was also a nice way for Easton to end his junior football career.

“It was huge,” Easton said. “It was super nice. It had been a pretty quiet last couple of years and to do what we did this year in my final year was a nice reward for five years playing. It was nice to go out on a good note.”

Westman will lose just three players from the 2017 edition, but all three losses will hurt. Along with Easton, linebacker Matthew Meeches and all-star left guard Bryce Roberts are also aging out of the five-team league, which is for players from 18 to 22 years old.

“They’re going to be impossible to replace, but as big of an impact as they had on the team, it feels like we’re in a good spot,” the 27-year-old Dane said.

The team is also expected to return its entire coaching staff.

After two seasons in which the team won just a single game, Dane said the coaches never lost faith in the potential of the players and in the process that they had initiated. He said the 4-4 season was vindication.

Dane said what set this team apart from others was that players grew into and thrived in their roles. For instance, Cody Hunter and Brady Waddell were the team’s starting corners.

One had never played football before, and the other had been a quarterback.

“You saw the athleticism, and in year two and three they’ve become really top-end players,” Dane said. “They’ve dedicated themselves to improving and kind of put it all together, and we saw that from a lot of guys, a continued development and living up to the potential that I think we all knew they had.”

Dane said a lot of players on the team come from nine-man football, so there is a definite learning curve.

That includes Easton, who also served as the team’s long snapper.

The fascinating part of his terrific final season was that he had never played middle linebacker before. He had always been an outside linebacker until a graduation forced his move into the middle. He thinks the experience in both places helped him.

“It really helped having an understanding of the whole field, side to side, and not just the middle,” Easton said. “You just play that much broader of a game.”

Easton said he learned a lot about football leadership from his teammate of four years, McClelland, who moved on to the coaching staff after his graduation. He speaks highly of the entire group.

“They’re all great,” Easton said of the coaches. “My rookie year, it was their last year playing so it’s great to see them come back. I know those guys really well and they all know football really well. They deserve the recognition they got. They put in a ton of hours.”

Dane said that all of the coaches have multiple roles beyond simply guiding the squad, doing everything from registration to dealing with equipment. He was happy to see them rewarded.

“We really appreciated the other teams voted to honour us in that way,” Dane said. “You don’t do it for awards like that but it’s certainly nice. It’s great for all of our coaches to get that honour.”

In the Wolverines’ last home game, Easton tore some ligaments in his right ankle. He was held out of their final game on the road, but returned for their playoff loss. Just after that defeat, Dane called the team together to tell them that Easton had won the two awards.

Easton said it’s a special moment because the good news helped him deal with the disappointment of his junior career ending.

Next spring might not be as easy.

“I’m going to miss it more than anything,” Easton said. “I’m dreading this coming year where I won’t be able to start playing football and getting ready in the spring. It’s going to suck, that’s for sure.”

The other award winners were:

•Top Scorer — Drennin Busch, Transcona Nationals.

•Outstanding Special Teams Player — Easton Borsboom, St. Vital Mustangs.

•Outstanding Offensive Player — Logan Thacker, St. Vital Mustangs.

•Outstanding Lineman — Tyler Bowering, Transcona Nationals.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson