The eve of the Moose Jaw High School Football season is upon us and we're wrapping up our look at the league with a trip to Vanier Collegiate.

The Vikings cruised through the league last season with a 6-0 record and their first league title in 18 years, but they will have to replace an incredible graduating class that included players like quarterback Ryan Froehlich,  two-way player Keegan Arnyek, running back Brandin Cannon and linebacker Michael Stefanovic.

Head coach Doug Panko says he feels they've got the players to fill the spots those guys left behind, "There's definitely some holes to fill, but we've got a good core of kids that are moving into their senior year, they've been coming through for the last couple years with us, so we've got some good kids coming into various starting positions.

"On our offensive line we've got quite a talented crew with Cass Follensbee and Ethan Shaheen that give us a lot of strength on the line and defensively, we've got returning vets like Christian Pearce and Nathan Buchko, who give us a lot of experience and just good football skills."

Starting safety Nathan Buchko (pictured, black jersey) says he feels they have guys that will step up and fill the roles that need to be filled, "We've been looking not bad, a little rusty, but

a lot of spots to fill.  We've found some guys, we're still looking for some others, but I feel we can fill them pretty good.

"We're just going to come in here and try as hard as we can."

While Panko admits that group of graduating players left an unbelievable legacy behind, but he feels they can build off it heading into this season, "Those boys left a real stamp on the team and equally have given a lot of direction to the younger kids in terms of what is required to be successful."

After two weeks of practice, offensive lineman Cassidy Follensbee says this team is starting to develop their own identity heading into the season opener, "We're a pretty quick team, agile and fast thinking too, just smart on our feet."

The Vikings have plenty of unknowns heading in Week 1 as they'll be the first team to take on the Yorkton Raiders, who will be joining the league this season after leaving the Regina Intercollegiate Football League.  Panko says they just need to play their game against Yorkton, "We just need to do what we do well because there's not a lot of prerequisite knowledge about what they have, so we'll just have to show up on the field and do our best."

"Our coaches are saying they're pretty good and we can't go easy on them," added Buchko.  "They want to show us who they are and we've just got to fight back and give it all we've got."

Vanier and Yorkton hit Gutheridge Field for the second half of the season opening doubleheader at 3:15pm.  Central takes on Swift Current at 1:00pm in the early game.

Vanier head coach Doug Panko previews the season with Marc Smith.

Offensive lineman Cassidy Follensbee.

Safety Nathan Buchko

HS Football Preview:
Big Changes To MJHSFL
SC Colts Improving
Coaching Change In Estevan
Fresh Start For Weyburn
Peacock Aiming High
Cyclones Ready To Go