‘True Friday night experience’: Coach working to bring high school football to small Manitoba town

The logo for Ecole Edward Schreyer School Barons in Beausejour. March 21, 2025. (Ecole Edward Schreyer School)

A football coach in Beausejour, Man., is working to bring a football program to a local high school so kids in the rural community have more options to play.

Kevin Gies is working to set up a team at Ecole Edward Schreyer School and make it part of the Winnipeg High School Football League.

Gies is currently a coach in the Manitoba Minor Football Association system and said the idea to start a high school football program had been something on his mind for a while.

“Mainly because football here grew immensely for us,” said Gies.

He had been fielding a lot of questions from parents wondering what was next for their kids once they finished peewee football.

He said the main option was going to Oak Bank to play, but for some that wasn’t possible.

“So that basically prompted us to say, ‘OK, let’s give this a shot. Let’s see where it takes us, and maybe we can get a team going, and maybe we can promote more football in rural areas.”

So Gies went to the school board first for approval, which was granted, and then started talking with the principal to get the ball rolling.

“He’s been pretty good. We’ve been working pretty well together.”

Lonnie Liske, the principal at Edward Schreyer, said he knew getting a team would be a lot of work, but was excited at the idea of making it happen.

“Beausejour is quite a football town. So I know that there would be a lot of interest as well. So, you try to make everything work,” said Liske.

He said players from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have visited the school in the past, which just deepens the passion for football throughout the school hallways.

“It would mean a lot if we could make that happen because it is a passion of kids in our community and their parents,” said Liske. “When you can play for your school, I find there’s a little bit more of a special feel to it…I think our students would be extremely excited to throw on that Barons ‘B’ and play football for our school.”

Gies has hopes that he can get a program up and running for 2026.

“I think my big goal here is for the true Friday night experience. I’m hoping that it’ll be very significant and huge for this whole community, for the whole Brokenhead community. And I’m hoping, selfishly, that us becoming a rural football team for the high school league, that more rural teams will try and start their own teams as well,” said Gies.

The importance of sport in rural communities

Jeffrey Bannon, the commissioner of the Winnipeg High School Football League, said he heard from Edward Schreyer last year and has been working with everyone involved to help ensure they have all the information they need to make the concept of a team a reality.

For Bannon, he feels football and sports in general can be so beneficial to every kid in Manitoba.

“It’s not about the wins and losses; it’s about the friendships you make along the way, and sport is a true metaphor for that. But it also, at the end of the day, it can help keep kids in school, and to me it’s all about academics,” said Bannon.

“If we can help anyone, obviously, create friendships, create life-long memories, but then maybe there’s a diamond in the rough that gets an athletic scholarship and continues their education. Maybe it’s the next Nic Demski or Brady Oliveira. So those are some things that we feel very passionate about.”

Being part of a rural sports team provides bonding opportunities, Bannon said, pointing to the road trips to get to games, as well as helping kids from all areas of the province explore Manitoba more.

Liske said there is also a deeper connection when rural students can join in with programs in the city.

“I think sometimes we feel that there’s not as many opportunities in the smaller communities, so anything we can offer our students is going to be beneficial to them. Every time you can represent your school and your community, I think for small-town kids, it’s added excitement. It’s added pride, because I think the community rallies around that and is also very proud of their students. So, it’s kind of a win-win for everybody in that regard,” said Liske.

The Winnipeg High School Football League is continuing to see growth, Bannon said, with more junior varsity teams joining the fray for next season, and there is the potential for at least two more teams to be part of the league in 2026.

Gies hopes everything goes according to plan to make Edward Schreyer one of those teams.

“I think for us, a little town like Beausejour, I think it’ll be huge,” said Gies.