Strathmore players compete for Vanier Cup

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

A pair of Strathmore football standouts – Brady Johansen and Jack Warrack – competed for the prestigious Vanier Cup in Regina on Nov. 22 

Despite their University of Saskatchewan Huskies team falling 30-16 to the Montreal Carabins, the moment was bigger than the result.

Speaking the night before the game, Johansen explained how deeply the season had prepared the team for the challenge. 

“I think that we’ve been mentally preparing all season for this. This is our 15th week of the season, which is the longest football season I’ve ever had,” he said. “Our leadership group has been a huge contribution to our success; we have a really veteran leadership group this year. The coaches have just been great all year round.”

For Warrack, the connection to home ran strong. Warrack has a deep connection to his former head coach of the Spartans, Danny Warrack, who is also his cousin. Danny made the trip to watch the young players along with a number of other fans from Strathmore. 

Strathmore High School coach Danny Warrack remembered both players clearly and said their talent and character were evident early. 

“Good athletes, outstanding guys to … coach and we won a lot of games when they were there,” he said. “We talked with other coaches, (we knew) we’d probably be seeing these guys playing football after Strathmore High School and that’s exactly what they did. Those guys deserve a lot of the credit – the fundamentals of football growing up made it pretty easy for me when I got them in high school.”

Badgers coach Doug Thiessen coached both athletes at the very beginning. 

“I coached both of them in peewee.” he said. “Did I expect them to go (this) far? Not really – we hadn’t had a lot of kids come out of our program and go to university level.” 

But what he did see was unmistakable leadership. 

“In their last years, they became the leaders, the ones that would lead through the warmups, make sure everybody would get in a lap in,” said Thiessen. “(In university) all your courses have to be done by 1 o’clock because starting at 2 o’clock you’re doing film study, weight training, practices, the whole nine yards.” 

From their earliest practices to the national stage, Johansen and Warrack carried their town with them. And regardless of the scoreboard, Strathmore has already won.