O-Line standouts honoured at SRSS Sabres football banquet

The big men who block up front rarely grab attention in football, but they were the focus at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres football banquet Dec. 4.

Offensive linemen Ryder Wallace and Eric Barnard split the varsity top lineman award, with Wallace being named the team’s most valuable player in addition to winning the league’s top lineman award and Barnard claiming the program’s Legacy Award.

“(Wallace) won the top lineman in Manitoba by a 10-2 vote. I’m not allowed to vote for him, and somebody else obviously didn’t watch every football game this year,” Fedus said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

“He was a dominant force on both sides of the ball. When you can run the same run play seven or eight times in a row, behind the same player, you have somebody special. When you can put him on the defensive line and he can ruin the other team’s offense, you have somebody special. When you have that in the same player stay on the field the whole game, you have somebody really special.”

Barnard ended the night by giving the captain’s speech to the crowd, thanking the program’s coaches for supporting him along the way.

“They helped me become a better person, a better football player and to really give me something to do other than just school, that would be pretty boring,” Barnard said.

“I’d like to thank all the other players for coming out and continue this amazing game at a program I love so much.”

Both Wallace and Barnard played with Fedus with Team Manitoba this summer, which kick-started a memorable year for the grade 12 duo.

“Ideally, a lineman is large, strong, athletic, intelligent, works hard, is super, super tough and selfless,” Fedus said when announcing the two as co-top lineman.

“This year, we were blessed with a number of linemen that fit that description. But we were lucky to have two very special lineman… They set the physical tone, so much so that in practice this year we even had to pull them back a little.”

Fedus said he even got a text from an Oak Park coach thanking him for their performance against Vincent Massey in the quarterfinals, as the team’s offensive line was so dominant Vincent Massey hadn’t recovered in time to be at their best in the semi-finals.

The top junior varsity lineman award has been re-named in honour of Dean Barkman-Schneider, who died in a dirt bike crash this summer.

The two other program awards were given to Reece Kehler and Oliver Dueck.

Kehler won the Koby/Anderson award, given to a player who’s contribution to the team doesn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet. The award had been named solely in honour of Brian Kobylak, who started the tradition and passed away during the 2017 season. A new name was added this year.

Ron Anderson, the final player who received the “Koby guy” award from Kobylak before he passed, died himself this fall after a battle with cancer. After getting pulled up to start nearly his full grade 12 season due to injury, in his final game he voluntarily stepped aside to let the now-recovered player start on the offensive line to give the team a better chance at winning the division 2 championship in 2016.

Anderson stayed involved with football after his graduation as a coach.

Fedus praised Kehler for his work off the field, as well as his work in practice to learn positions on both offense and defense, despite not getting a chance to play much on offense.

The program’s leadership award went to Dueck. Program coordinator Jamie Peters said there was no traditional vocal leader on this year’s team, but gave credit to the entire group for bringing other styles of leadership. Dueck was a one-year starter for the Sabres, with Peters crediting the grade 12 player for his three years of work in the background leading up to 2025.

“(Dueck) embodied hard work, dedication and the ability to take coaching continuously to improve,” Peters said, saying his four-year improvement might have set a new program standard.

“While many might have given up, (Dueck) kept grinding, working and improving.”

The Sabres program had a solid year overall both in the junior varsity and varsity ranks. The junior varsity team enjoyed their largest team since it’s inception, while the varsity team finished in the top-eight for the third consecutive year.

A playoff victory and appearance in the provincial semi-finals still eludes the program in it’s post-COVID era, but Peters is optimistic that’s on the way if the program can follow their “be better” moto.

“These two simple words are the backbone of what we believe in, we want our players to be better in everything they do,” Peters said, noting the program is set to return 18 players with a potential 24 ready to move up from the JV ranks.

“As we’re in our off-season, our challenge is to commit to becoming stronger, faster and more versatile.”

Sawyer Thiessen and Payton Falk were inducted into the Sabres hall of fame at the banquet. The duo were crucial when the Sabres made a final four run in 2019.