Dakota Collegiate’s Varsity and Junior Varsity (JV) football teams made history this season when they became WHSFL Divisional Champions! Both teams won 2023 WHSFL D1 4A ANAVETS Bowl and the JV Home Run Sports Bowl. This marks the first time both Lancers have won the championship, and the teams are excited to have reached this milestone for the first time together. 

Both teams soared past their opponents, the Grant Park Pirates, in a 28 to 7 victory for the Varsity team and a 44 to 13 win for the JVs. 

Players like Blake Penner, Grade 12 student and quarterback for the Varsity team, learned valuable lessons about the importance of teamwork, resilience, and positivity. 

“Coming together as a team in the semi-final game and overcoming some major adversity really helped us connect and show us that we were able to accomplish anything if we did it as a team,” said Blake. “Overcoming the deficit in the semi-final and coming out with the win really helped us unify and helped us down the stretch in the championship.” 

“One of the strongest aspects of our team this year was our ability to come together and work together as a team.” 

The Lancers’ victory is another show of why enhancing belonging should always be a top priority; when we make people feel like they belong, they work together as a unit to achieve the seemingly impossible. 

Varsity coach Mitchell Harrison explained that teamwork and accountability propelled the team further than skill and ability alone ever did: “we’ve had very talented rosters in the past, but they just didn’t get along with each other to the degree that they needed to win. [This year] it wasn’t about who got credit – it was just about getting it done as a unit, and we did exactly that.” 

“I’m truly so proud of these young men and what they were able to achieve as a team,” said Mr. Harrison. 

The JV team echoes the same sentiments.  

“From the athletes to the admin, the entire building was electric,” said Abbas Butt, head coach for the Junior Varsity team at Dakota. “It means a lot particularly to this group of Grade 10s who lost the year before. They came back stronger, faster, and more disciplined for us to win the game.” 

Quarterback for the JV Lancers, Khaleel Hosein, is one of those players who got this redemption.  

“It was kind of a revenge game [for me] and I got to play how I feel I should have performed the year before,” explained the Grade 10 student.  

And the feeling from that redemption is one that won’t ever go away. “It meant everything to me,” Khaleel expressed. 

Coaches say the school was still buzzing a solid week after the win: “It’s really motivating to go make it happen again.” 

Thanks to Louis Riel Arts and Technology Centre’s Broadcast Media students, you can watch a replay of the Varsity game on LRSD.tv.