Photo supplied by Trevor Prichard

By Shane Clausing

St. Joseph's football

St. Joe’s Football coach presented with 2020 Football Alberta Award of Merit

Feb 28, 2021 | 7:00 AM

St. Joseph High School Football Head Coach Trevor Prichard is one of 16 individuals who were presented with Football Alberta’s Award of Merit earlier this month.

The annual award is given to football coaches at various levels and is meant to recognize the staff and volunteers who worked hard this season to “keep the lights on” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coach Prichard says he was nominated by surprise by his football team. While he’s the main award recipient, he says none of this would’ve been possible without the rest of his team.

“It was certainly appreciated, but it definitely was not all me in regard to keeping the kids busy, getting them on the field and getting them active again,” said Prichard.

“I’ve got a wonderful coaching staff and a fantastic training staff, and they all worked very hard trying to get the kids some sort of opportunity for sport.”

This season for Prichard was very challenging, as it was for his team. Outside of football, Prichard’s season included hours of preparation preparing a new coaching staff and additional staff to accommodate the increased COVID-19 restrictions.

Some of his extra tasks included completing the increased paperwork needed to ensure all restrictions were adhered to. He also built a spreadsheet that tracked all COVID symptoms and temperatures, sanitization of equipment, and built an injury status report to ensure that all coaches had access to important information at all times.

While there was extra work involved this season, Prichard was able to get through six weeks of inter-squad games and practices, which he says was a challenge, but adds his team was fully committed.

“I think it speaks well for the kids we have in the program, because nobody was saying, ‘if we don’t get to play somebody, we’re not coming out.’”

“We had a great turnout of kids knowing full well they might not get anything to really play for, but they were very excited and willing to come out to the field. We were really happy with that. It really made it worth it to try and give them an opportunity because we want to see our kids flourish and do great things outside of Grande Prairie and our school community, so we worked hard to make sure we could try and do something for them.”

Prichard’s team was able to get a game in against Peace River during the season, right before schools were forced to shut football down amid new COVID-19 restrictions. St. Joes football team was able to finish their season without a single positive COVID-19 test.

With the spring nearing, Prichard tells EverythingGP they’re hoping to get their Spring Season started during the week of March 15.

He says there could be as many as 75 kids who will participate during the Spring Season. Prichard added the school’s goal will be to give every kid an opportunity to play.

He’s hopeful they’ll be able to put together a Senior and Junior team for the Spring Season and get some games played in the NPFL, as well as some games potentially in Edmonton. However, those all depend on Alberta Health Services guidelines.