Saint Michael football in rebuild mode
By Bernie Puchalski - October 27, 2021
Brandon Bell had never played a down of football before suiting up for Saint Michael this fall.
He attended a few football training sessions in the summer at the Niagara Falls high school and his friend, Nathan Carter, just happened to be the son of head coach Brian Carter.
It wasn’t long before the Grade 10 student was loving the sport.
“It is awesome and fun and there is a lot of contact,” he said Wednesday, after scoring two touchdowns to lead the Saint Michael junior team to a 34-7 victory over the visiting Holy Cross Raiders in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play.
Bell has no hesitation when asked if he would encourage others to take up the sport.
“I would tell them to do it,” he said. “It is lots of fun and you are friends with everyone out here.”
For the first time in maybe ever, Saint Michael doesn’t have a senior program this fall. Early in the school year, Saint Michael had 25-28 kids out for a senior practice but the commitment level left something to be desired.
“We had 16 to 18 kids coming out to practice and there wasn’t enough commitment to really have a senior team,” Brian Carter said. “Unfortunately we had to make a tough decision at that point to only run a junior team.”
It was certainly not an easy decision for anyone at the school to make considering its long history of fielding competitive football squads.