A local football coach’s contributions to the game at an amateur level were honoured by both the provincial governing body and the province’s CFL team last weekend.

Peacock Collegiate’s Blake Buettner received the Football Saskatchewan Amateur Coach Recognition Award at last Saturday’s Saskatchewan Roughriders game.

Moose Jaw born Brian Towriss and Esterhazy football coach Reg Leidl were also recipients of the award.

“It was nice to get recognized, it’s really an honour to be up there with some of the coaches that have won the award before,” said Buettner, who along with Leidl, was honoured on the field before the game at new Mosaic Stadium.

Buettner wrapped up a 29-year coaching career with the Peacock Tornadoes in the fall of 2016.  He made a massive impact on the sport here in the Friendly City over the three decades on the sidelines, which is something that he’s been able to reflect back on now with a year removed from coaching. 

Buettner said it’s the relationships that you develop with the student athletes that leaves the biggest imprint.

“When you first start coaching, you’re not sure about the kind of impact that you’re going to have and there’s some frustrations, but as you go through the years, you have players come back and on field moments that are special,” said Buettner.

“It was special on Saturday night, Levi Steinhauer was playing there (with the Edmonton Eskimos) and saw it on the screen and gave me a text after, so it’s just special, you have those relationship developed over the years and then they become more special as you get older.”

This past season was the first away from the sidelines for Buettner, who said it was a little different not being around the team as much as he used to be when fall hit.

“I miss coaching, but I felt that it was time to hand the reigns over to some of the younger guys that are very capable, Bert Redstone did a great job with the team this year,” said Buettner, who still teaches at Peacock.  “I miss being around the guys, but I felt it was time to move on.”

The high school football season has been over for Moose Jaw teams for a few weeks, but it closes this weekend with the Yorkton Raiders meeting the North Battleford Vikings in the SHSAA 3A 12-man provincial final on Saturday.