Team Rifles defeats Team Nationals to win inaugural Midget Bowl 

The Midget Football League of Manitoba congratulates Team Rifles, who defeated Team Nationals 10-7 in the inaugural Midget Bowl on Saturday, July 26, 2008. The game featured many of the best and most promising current Midget players, as voted by the coaches, including a number of U17 and U19 Provincial team members and 2007 Midget League All-Stars. The game was extremely well attended as the main event of the Transcona Nationals Pre-Season Tournament. The teams were named after the Winnipeg Rifles and Transcona Nationals, who helped support the event and provided use of their jerseys. The players were divided into the two teams after 3 days of practice in St. James to prepare for the event.

Team Rifles QB Jordan Gagnon (St. James) and Team Nationals RB Dylan Simmons (St. James) both rushed for touchdowns on second-and-goal situations, while Ben Shea (St. James) kicked the game-winning field goal for Team Rifles in the final minutes. All 3 scores were set up by long pass receptions, provided by Dylan Harris (North Winnipeg) and Fabio Dube-Forslund (St. Vital) from Team Rifles and Alex Vitt (St. Vital) from Team Nationals.  Team Rifles defensive back Andrew Kleinsasser (Fort Garry) sealed the victory with his second interception of the night in the game's final minute.  Team Rifles' RB Chris Bennett (Greendell) and LB Luke Jacobucci (Fort Garry) also had standout performances and will be players to watch for this year in the Midget League, which kicks off it's 49th season on Aug. 16 with afternoon games at St. James and Steinbach (Eastman) and a night game under the lights at Charlie Krupp Stadium (Nationals @ Nomads).

Brian Dobie, Head Coach of the National Champion University of Manitoba Bisons football program, performed the ceremonial coin toss, and gave a pre-game speech to the players recalling his experiences as a former Midget Football League MVP with St. Boniface in the early 1970s. He also commented on the uniqueness of the event, where Midget players were given the opportunity to play against their own club teammates, since both rosters contained players from all seven Midget League teams. Coach Dobie went on to list many former Midget League players who later joined the Bisons football program on their way to the CFL, and told the players to work hard in the weight room and in the classroom if they wanted to maximize their potential.

Midget Football League President Chris Holigroski, the main organizer of the Midget Bowl, was very pleased with the game's success.

"The Midget Football League of Manitoba is one of the best kept secrets on the local sports scene," says Holigroski. "Last season, our league's MVP, scoring leader, and QB sack leader all received football scholarships from either CIS universities or U.S. colleges, and this game showed that there will certainly be many players to follow in their footsteps." 

Holigroski envisions inviting a larger number of players to participate in next year's event, as the inaugural affair was kept smaller and lower-key to better ensure a successful start to what will become an annual tradition. Though the event helped build player camaraderie and fostered new friendships among soon-to-be opponents, the game did serve a larger purpose.

"Our players deserve more publicity and this is another way to provide university and Junior coaches as well as the media with easy access to our players. We realize the need to become more aggressive in promoting our football league, as our players have represented themselves especially well in recent years at events such as Football Manitoba's Blue & Gold games, the RONA Senior Bowl, and the Football Canada Cup. By holding events like this, in combination with our web site's utilization of player profiles and highlight videos, we are striving to help our players get noticed." 

Holigroski wishes to recognize many coaches and members of the league's Executive whose work behind the scenes provided for a first-rate event, "Especially our Head Coaches Anthony Maros and Tim Shea, who provided excellent teaching and leadership and exemplified the quality coaching our league has to offer.  Our football league exists because of the need to develop 15, 16, and 17 year olds into future Winnipeg Rifles and University of Manitoba Bisons, and because of their efforts I know this game has helped the players get closer to their goal of being the future members of the elite Junior and University football programs in this province." 

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TEAM RIFLES

Head Coach: Tim Shea (St. James Rods)

  Head Coach: Anthony Maros (Fort Garry Lions)