Springfield football aiming high in transition year

The Springfield Sabres football team will have a new look on the sidelines this season, but the play on the field should look the same.

Head coach Tom Walls has left the program, as he moves to Colombia. The coach has spent time around the world, including in America, Ireland and Korea.

“At fifty-five, I don’t know exactly what life in Colombia will look like, but I do know something I didn’t know fifteen years ago,” Walls wrote in his Substack.

“The opposite of fear isn’t certainty. It’s trust in yourself. Trust that you can make new friends. Trust that you’ll find meaningful work. Trust that, given enough time, unfamiliar streets become familiar, strangers become neighbours, and another place eventually starts feeling like home.”

The Sabres program is continuing on in his absence, with defensive coordinator Val Medved noting Wall’s fingerprints are still all over the program.

“He’s still here in spirit, he still watches us via stream, he’s still involved in the program, just from a massive distance,” Medved said.

“The essentials are still there. We’re still running our wing T, which is still difficult to cover… The philosophy is still there, the mentality is still there, it’s just getting the kids on board with it.”

That much was obvious during the school’s 39-12 exhibition game win over Garden City Sept. 3. The Sabres are continuing to run their trademark power run game innovated by Walls during his time at the school.

“Our offense is meant to grind them down,” Medved said.

“Grind them down to the point where (the opponents) are asking ‘Now what?’ It’s the same thing with our defense.”

The Springfield Sabres are playing in the second tier of the Winnipeg High School football league this season, and expectations are high this year.

“We have to go for it all,” Medved said, noting the program has done well since joining the league in 2019.

“I don’t know of a team that doesn’t say, ‘We want to win it all.’ That’s the mentality we have to have. I’m really excited for this season. It’s a different look, but the same feel.”

Springfield opens their season at home against Kelvin Sept. 11 in Oakbank.