Team Manitoba recorded one win and two losses at the 2018 Canada Cup U18 football championship last week in Calgary.

"It went pretty well," said Team Manitoba head coach Ryan Karhut. "It was a lot of fun. We didn't get the results we were looking for. We thought we had a better team than what we ended up showing. We had some untimely mistakes which sometimes happens. We had a younger roster but you know overall it was a great experience."

Manitoba lost it's opener 48-6 to Saskatchewan and then defeated Nova Scotia 18-13.

That set up a fifth place showdown with British Columbia which Manitoba lost 23-10.

"We had way too many turnovers," explained coach Karhut when asked about that loss to B.C. "We had a few fumbles on offense, specialty teams miscues that just cost us everything. Our defense played very, very well. They scored 14 points off of turnovers and we lost by 13. If you limit those mistakes we probably have a lot better chance in that game or a lot closer game anyways that would have come right down to the end of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately with a three-game tournament, you got those three games in seven days - you can't be making mistakes because every game just matters so much. We were our worst enemy last week."

Karhut said the team's experience at the eight-team Canada Cup is very much what the next level of football is for his 40-player roster which included linebacker Isaak Dooken and defensive lineman Keone Montrose-Rogers of Steinbach.

"It's football all day. There's meetings, there's film study, there's practice - there's all sorts of things going on the entire day. The days are long and full and it felt very much like a CIS or a U Sports training camp and I think a lot of guys weren't expecting the intensity or the amount of football that was being handed to them while we were there. I think it's a great experience for them to learn and prepare themselves for what's next."

"Every university is represented at this tournament," added coach Karhut. "They all have their coaching staffs there. It's a very highly recruited event. For a lot of these guys this tournament is what springboards them into their college careers and they kind of get that glimpse of not only what it looks like on the field as far as competition goes but also getting a sense of how the process goes at well. I think it's huge for these guys. We had a really, really talented roster and I think lot of our team will wind up at the college level in the next couple of years."

 

photo courtesy Stafford Studios