It's hard to top perfection, but members of last year's B.C. junior varsity football champions will be looking to do just that when they take the field with the Terry Fox Ravens senior team.
"On the offensive side of the ball, our key player is Conner McKee," said Tomas Kudaba, co-coach of the Ravens varsity team
McKee guided the Ravens junior squad to a perfect 12-0 record last year, culminated when he threw two touchdown passes to help Terry Fox topple the St. Thomas More Knights 14-7 in the BC AAA title game at BC Place.
"He is a triple threat as they say: he can run, he can throw and he can lead," said Kudaba.
Running back Mike West and receiver Nick Agnoletto are expected to be the favourite targets for McKee. While Kyle Sagmoen and Michael Beck will be the anchors of a potentially dominant offensive line.
"We have a fairly senior offensive line with a lot of size and strength. We're looking forward to having them block for the running game, which will be running back by committee," said Kudaba.
The Ravens compiled a 3-3 mark in the regular season last year, losing in the B.C. AAA quarterfinal to the eventual champion Mt. Douglas Rams.
"We weren't too far off last year. We had a couple of key injuries that hurt us," said Kudaba, who focuses on the defensive side of the ball while Martin McDonnell handles the offence. "This year we're very optimistic with the success of the junior varsity."
Free safety Kyle Miller and linebacker/strong safety Jason Shamatutu will lead the swarming Ravens' defence.
"When we went to our team camp in the United States in late June, they only allowed one touchdown in all the scrimmages we had against American high school teams," said Kudaba, adding that most of last year's starters will be back with the Ravens this season.
"All these guys will have varsity experience, so they might be young but they'll also be battle hardened."
The Ravens open their exhibition season against West Van at 3:45 p.m. Sept. 6 at Terry Fox before travelling to Mt. Douglas Sept. 14 for an exhibition contest against the defending champion Rams.
The Ravens success on the field has also served as inspiration for their cross-town rivals.
"For us, we understand we're in a very challenging division," said Simon Quinto, head coach for the Centennial Centaurs. "We always use Terry Fox as a measuring stick because they're always a strong competitor but we love having the challenge of that as well."
After struggling on the field last season, the Centaurs have brought in a new system to overhaul the offence.
"We're running an offence that is catered to our mobile quarterback as well as our feature back," said Quinto, who moves up to the varsity squad after coaching the juniors last season. "We're going with a spread offence which is quite exciting for the kids."
Signal-caller Nick Okamoto is one of eight returning veterans on the Centaurs and he will be joined in the backfield by J.P. Kalambay.
"We ran a different offence and he played the fullback position but he'll be our feature back this year," said Quinto, who expects Jordan Kennedy to lead Centennial's corps of speedy receivers.
Middle linebacker Aaron Borg will lead the defence that will be using more nickel packages to emphasize the Centaurs' speedy secondary.
"We're going to mix it up. We'll play zone but we also recognize that a lot of our DBs enjoy the challenge of playing man-on-man," said Quinto. "You get stuck on that island but you embrace it and you love the challenge."
He said the team has been working hard the past couple weeks to get ready for their exhibition game Sept. 7 against the Seaquam Seahawks in Delta. The Centaurs open the regular season at home against St. Thomas More Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
"There is a buzz and excitement that our program has right now," said Quinto. "Just the fact the kids came out early and wanted to train on their own shows how much they want to be a part of it and it's exciting to be around it."
