It was a night of celebration at the Carlton Cafetorium on Wednesday night.
The Carlton Crusaders hosted a banquet to celebrate the first football provincial championship in school history. The night featured a banquet catered by the Carlton commercial cooking team with Saskatchewan Rivers trustee Bill Yeaman serving as the master of ceremonies for the night.
Carlton head coach Lindsay Strachan says it was exciting to have everyone involved with the team from players and coaches to the parents and supporting staff.
“Just seeing everybody together. We typically are dealing with one group or another. To get everybody out tonight to celebrate this group and to see this room full was especially special.”
The night featured several guest speakers including Strachan, current University of Saskatchewan defensive back Tazmin Smith-Windsor, a speech from three graduating Grade 12 players and an address from the parents.
Throughout the evening, there was an emphasis on thanking everyone who played a part in supporting the Crusaders off the field. From organizing a concession during the home games at Max Clunie Field, selling 50/50 tickets, the training and medical staff and all the sponsorships that made the team operation possible.
Strachan says it has been incredible to see the quality of people who want to make an impact with the student-athletes at Carlton.
“It is so much bigger than one person. The amount of people it takes to do this right is immense and we are so fortunate to have quality people that want to work with our young people in this building. For everybody that supports our game day operations, supports us in that way and especially our coaching staff, our parent group, we just have so many quality people that want to work with our kids right now. It’s just such a pleasure for me to be a part of it.”
With a 35-34 win over Saskatoon Bishop James Mahoney at SMF Field earlier this month, Carlton captured the first provincial title in school history. The Crusaders had previously made it to the 3A Provincial Final in 1984, 1991 and 1995 but lost in all three games.
Strachan says the night was a perfect finish to the end of the season.
“It was awesome. Just a celebration, not just with our group, but in the community and to get people together to again recognize this historic kind of accomplishment for our program is a wonderful night. I think it went really well and hopefully it’s not the last.”
One event that was constantly joked about during the night was the fact that Strachan threw his clipboard during the provincial final against BJM.
In the fourth quarter, Carlton faced a third down with a yard to go and were looking to draw the Saints offside. It appeared that a Saints player had jumped, but it was not called by any of the officials.
During the address by the graduating Grade 12 players, Carlton quarterback Sully Smith-Windsor had referred to that moment as the most animated he had ever seen the normally calm, cool and collected Strachan.
“The clipboard survived.” Strachan said with a laugh. “I threw it, but I have all my plays on it, so I knew I couldn’t throw it that hard. It was a soft throw.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
