His room is painted maroon and prominently displays school decals and the team nickname. Yes, Danny Harris bleeds Kildonan East Reivers football and has done so since the program was first started back in 2006.
Fitting, then, that Harris – the Reivers Grade 12 quarterback – played such a prominent role Wednesday night at Investors Group Field as Kildonan East captured the first title in school history with a thrilling 35-32 victory over the St. John’s Tigers in the WHSFL Bowl.
“Danny Harris is amazing,” said Reivers head coach Jason Hawk. “He’s a great story. He started playing football the year we started this program and when he came to Kildonan East his room was already painted maroon and he was dead set on being a Reivers football player.
“It’s kind of fruition that now we’re 11 years, he’s in his 11th year and we’re done. He’s the heart and soul of this team.”
Harris threw for two touchdowns, one to Robert Goldenstein – who also ran for a score – the other to Dillon Guiboche, and ran for two to pace the Reivers, who built 14-3 and 35-17 leads before hanging on as a Tigers last-chance drive ended in Kildonan East territory.
Afterwards, while posing for photos and celebrating with his teammates – especially the seniors – Harris was trying to put the win into perspective.
“This is unbelievable,” began Harris. “I can’t even explain how emotional and happy I am that we could actually pull this off and get our school our first championship.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m so excited.”
The Tigers got two TDs from Payton Yakimishyn, Anthony Lavallee on a pass from Jordan Thomas and an interception return by James Moar. St. John’s was seeking its first title since 2000 and their failed late rally had some players in tears afterward.
“We knew they were going to be a tougher team and we definitely weren’t going to take them lightly,” said Harris. “We knew they were missing some players and were missing some key players, but we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
The Reivers finished the regular season 4-2 before knocking off Tec Voc to advance to the title game. And much of their success in the finale dates back to their struggles in 2015.
“The team’s been great this year,” said Hawk. “Last year we learned how to lose, but that actually made us better coaches and better players and we learned from it. And today that bit of adversity we had, we held it together. Last year we wouldn’t have done that, this year we did and you saw the results.
“It was a great battle between two programs that needed it.”
They were perfect in the regular season and perfect when it mattered most.
And now the Dryden Eagles have their first title in the Winnipeg High School Football League after blanking the Portage Trojans 21-0 in the Canad Inns Bowl Thursday night at Investors Group Field.
The Eagles got two touchdowns from Liam Wrolstad and a third from Jarrett Hicks Thursday, capping a season in which they went 10-0 and avenged last year’s semifinal loss to the Vincent Massey Vikings.
It is the first undefeated season in 67 years of Dryden football.
“It stems from last year and losing in the semifinals… it had more of an impact than we thought it would,” said Eagles head coach Geoff Zilkens. “They just didn’t want to have that feeling again, knew they had some talent and worked a lot harder this year.
“Football is a hot topic in Dryden right now and it bodes really well for the future. A lot of kids want to play it and we’re really encouraged. We’ve come a long way from playing just Kenora, Fort Frances and three teams. Joining this league has been excellent, they’ve treated us well and the opportunity to see other programs really made us raise our game and our kids have bought in.
“It’s just another building block in what we hope is a long tradition.”
WHSFL BOWL
Kildonan East Reivers 35 St. John’s Tigers 32
MVP: Danny Harris, QB, Kildonan East
CANAD INNS BOWL
Dryden Eagles 21 Portage Trojans 0
MVP: Jarrett Hicks, QB, Dryden
HOME RUN SPORTS BOWL (Junior Varsity)
Vincent Massey Trojans 57 Oak Park Raiders 14
MVP: Jackson Tachinski, QB, Vincent Massey – 3 TDs passing, 1 rushing
THURSDAY’S GAMES
CTV BOWL
Kelvin Clippers vs. Steinbach Sabres, 5 p.m., Investors Group Field
ANAVETS BOWL
Vincent Massey Trojans vs. St. Paul’s Crusaders, 7:30 p.m., Investors Group Field
