Bison football adds six local recruits

Vuthana Suon Staff

Bison football head coach Brian Dobie has been working feverishly to add to his roster for the upcoming season, and he recently signed six promising new recruits, all of them local.

The six recruits include quarterback Nathan Friesen, wide receiver Simon Blaszczak and defensive back Erik Gustafson of the Winnipeg Rifles football club, defensive lineman Eddie Steele and receiver Jessey Ternowetsky of the Kelvin Clippers and Sisler Spartans respectively, and safety Joe Holder of the Midget Football League of Manitoba.

“This was probably our best recruiting year locally since 1998-99, which was when Israel Idonije came on board,” said Dobie, speaking of the ex-Bison star who has gone on to play in the NFL.

One of the biggest spots for Dobie to fill this year will be at quarterback, as record-breaking QB Ryan Zahara will be moving on this year — Zahara holds the Bison records for most attempts, completions and passing yardage in a season, and led the Canada West conference and the CIS with 2128 passing yards in 2005.

Dobie’s QB dilemma may have been improved, however, with the addition of Friesen, a Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) All-Canadian quarterback. While it will be hard to reproduce Zahara’s record-breaking results, Dobie feels that Friesen will be able to come in and battle with the other prospective quarterbacks for the spot. It will be tough, however, as Friesen will have to go up against the likes of John Makie, another highly successful former CJFL quarterback who was Zahara’s backup last season.

“Nate Friesen will come in and make our QB position interesting, because they’ll all be duking it out for the starting spot,” said Dobie. “We added tremendous competition and depth to the position.”

The already strong recruiting class will be made even stronger if coach Dobie has anything to say about it. He has been working to sign a number of high-profile recruits from out of Manitoba and cannot wait to see the kind of impact that they will have for next year.

“We’re very close to signing a young man out of Toronto who will remain nameless, and we think he is the number one tailback in the nation,” said an excited Dobie. “We’re just hoping that this recruiting class will put us over the edge.”