Kieran Poissant is now a pro receiver catching passes from Vernon Adams Jr. in the CFL for the B.C. Lions. Quarterback Te Jessie is throwing spirals in U Sports at St. Mary’s.
The defending B.C. Football Conference-champion and 2023 national Canadian Bowl runner-up Westshore Rebels are facing a rebuild — especially on offence with Poissant and Jessie having graduated from junior football and Westshore — as the Rebels open the 2024 season today in Kamloops against the Broncos.
Ethan Pickard from the Cochrane Cobras youth association in Alberta, understudy the past two seasons under the dynamic playmaker Jessie, steps up to the starting Westshore quarterback position. Receiver Zion Brown was third on the depth chart last season behind the potent pairing of Poissant and Cario Berry, the latter now with York in U Sports. Brown will get his chance to be the main target at wide-out this season.
Pickard should have time to find Brown and his other receivers with the heart of the offensive line returning with Marino Dujela, Nelson Way and Camauri Barney.
It’s on defence this season where the Rebels could play havoc on the opposition with a core of returnees that includes defensive-linemen Cody McMahon and Ted Windom Jr. and defensive-backs Bryce Reuther and Giovanni Linuzzi.
“We had a really strong team last season — I would still like to have the national championship game back — but we started a lot of 22-year-olds [the graduating age for junior football] and will now start to rebuild it back up,” said Rebels president Rob Lervold.
“We will have a younger team this season. We’ve picked up some nice pieces during recruiting, several of them local players.”
Both Island teams in the BCFC open today on the road under new head coaches. Mark Townsend and Shawn Arabsky, between them, have won eight B.C. high school football championships. They now take their headsets to the BCFC as the new respective bench bosses of Westshore and the Vancouver Island Raiders.
Townsend, who guided the Mount Douglas Secondary Rams to six provincial championships, brings the Rebels into Kamloops today to face the Broncos before the home opener next Saturday at Starlight Stadium against the Prince George Kodiaks.
Arabsky, who coached the John Barsby Secondary Bulldogs to two B.C. high school championships, will get the Raiders’ longest road trip out of the way early by opening today in Prince George. The home opener for the Raiders is next Saturday against the Okanagan Sun on the Nanaimo District Secondary school field.
The two Island teams couldn’t be coming from further starting points. The Rebels went undefeated last year in the 10 regular-season games and won both their league playoff games to lift the Cullen Cup as BCFC champions. The only setback was the 17-10 loss to the Saskatoon Hilltops in the 2023 Canadian Bowl national championship game before nearly 3,000 fans at Starlight Stadium.
The Raiders, meanwhile, went winless and missed the playoffs last season. They are looking for a return to the glory days when they won the Canadian Bowl national championship in 2006, 2008 and 2009 led by running-back and eventual CFL great and four-time Grey Cup champion Andrew Harris, now the Raiders’ director of football operations in the team’s rebuild.
A cornerstone will be Ben Chomolok, who really aired it out last year despite all the losses, and who returns as Raiders quarterback.
Meanwhile, Townsend will try to replicate the success of 2023 Westshore head coach Dexter Janke, the former CFL pro and Grey Cup champion, who departed to take on the head coaching position of the York University Lions in U Sports.
Townsend sent numerous players on to U Sports and several to the CFL in this 19 years at the Mount Douglas Secondary helm. Most recently, last season, Townsend coached the running backs at Kealakehe High School on the Big Island of Hawaii.
The Rebels have played in the BCFC championship game for the Cullen Cup five times in the past seven seasons. The team advanced to the Canadian Bowl national junior final in 2003, 2016 and 2023 but remains looking for its first national crown. It is now Townsend’s job to get the team over that final hurdle, although that might be a several-season project with a young team at the beginning of a cycle.
“This is their opportunity. This is a new team. They want to write their own chapter,” said Townsend.
“Our offensive line is tremendous and our defence is stellar. We have a lot of potential.”
A lot of what brought Townsend success at the high school level will be applied now at the junior level. But there are no secrets, said Townsend: “I have a few core values that I impart to the players — compete, believe in ourselves, be prepared and be relentless in effort from the first snap to the last snap.”
Townsend knows there are no magic formulas in sport. It’s basic stuff, that when applied properly by coaching, produces results.
The Rebels’ home opener next Saturday against the Kodiaks will be followed by a home game Aug. 10 against the Okanagan Sun. The Rebels are away to Chilliwack to play the Huskers on Aug. 17 followed by a back-to-back Island derby set against the Vancouver Island Raiders on Aug. 24 at Starlight Stadium and Sept. 7 in Nanaimo.
The Langley Rams batter into Starlight Stadium on Sept. 15. Westshore travels to Kelowna Sept. 21 for a game against the Sun at the Apple Bowl. The 10-game regular-season concludes with a game Sept. 28 at Starlight against the Raiders and at Langley on Oct. 5 against the Rams. The playoff semifinals are Oct. 12, Cullen Cup league championship game Oct. 19, the BCFC-Prairie Conference national cross-over semifinal Oct. 26 and the Canadian Bowl on Nov. 9 at the home of the Ontario champion.
