The Peak

SFU deserves huge props for win

By Matt Lee, Associate Staff Contributor

If you went up to any SFU student a year ago and asked them what they thought of the Clan football team, chances are you’d get a negative answer. Over the last four years there have been few positive remarks of the program and an endless amount of criticism.

But if you were an SFU student lucky enough to be part of the 2,600 in attendance at Thunderbird Stadium for Shrum Bowl XXXI on Thursday, chances are that your opinion of this football team has changed for the better.

After Jeff Biles booted the last-second field goal to win SFU’s first Shrum Bowl in five years, players, coaches, and trainers flooded the field. SFU fans in attendance jumped over the guard railing to mob their team.

Players who had endured years of defeat were overcome with emotion as victory cries and tears of joy took over. Simply put, it was a storybook ending to a game where both teams left everything on the gridiron.

Even before the Clan one-upped UBC at the fall classic there was a sense of optimism in the air. First, SFU beat UBC in August to end their four-year losing streak. Three weeks later, the Clan marched into BC Place on Super Football Saturday and defeated current No.2-ranked Saskatchewan. Another three weeks later, the Clan somehow upended the defending Vanier Cup champion Manitoba in overtime.

Now you can add the Clan’s monumental victory against the T-Birds to their list of incredible feats this season. Don’t be fooled by the naysayers and make no mistake — the SFU Clan are for real.

Head coach Dave Johnson has done some remarkable things in only his second season at the helm. After going 0-8 in 2007, Johnson recruited players like Austrians Bernd Dittrich and Daniel Stanzel as well as UBC transfers Chris Folk and Tony Strong.

With his new recruits, Johnson has implemented a no-quit, hard-working mentality, and that attitude has had a trickle-down effect throughout the entire roster and is paying huge dividends today.

“It was such a grind, this game, and the whole process of coming here [from UBC] [doing] two-a-days and offseason workouts,” Strong said. “If I could say anything to the people in the audience and our fans, it’s to never stop believing. It shows you can overcome adversity and just battle and pull through. It shows so much of our character.”

Many experts scoffed at the notion SFU could become a team that could win two or three games, let alone make the playoffs. But this team believed. Their confidence never wavered through their victories and defeats, and now the Clan have re-established the luster and winning tradition that was once synonymous with SFU football.

The Clan scratched and clawed their way back to respectability and has earned the admiration of not just the province, but the entire Canada West.

It’s time for SFU students to acknowledge the hard work put in by the coaches and players over the last year, because this group has emerged as a contender built around the pillars of heart, integrity, and determination.