Thunder pair hopes to make more noise before the end
By TIM SWITZER
Leader-Post

With some athletes coming to the end of their careers, coaches like to celebrate the accomplishments of their charges before they move on.

When it comes to Deke Junior and Stu Foord — both in their fifth and final years of junior football — Regina Thunder offensive co-ordinator Gerry Thompson is keeping things quiet.

“With those two young guys you want to avoid talking about it,” said Thompson. “They’re two people that can get too hyped up. Calmness is all we need.”

While Thompson isn’t speaking about what may come after the Thunder’s Prairie Football Conference semifinal against the host Saskatoon Hilltops on Sunday, the veteran coach isn’t staying mum about what he thinks of the pair.

“Deke is easily the best quarterback I’ve ever coached in terms of his skills, his thought processes — every aspect of the position,” said Thompson, who also coached the duo for two years at Thom Collegiate. “Stu is right up there. I’ve been fortunate to coach some great tailbacks and he’s up there with (current Saskatchewan Roughriders) Kennedy Nkeyasen and Neal Hughes and (former Regina Ram) Jason Belisle.”

At the end of the 2007 PFC season, Junior sat well above other league quarterbacks with 2,488 yards to go along with 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Foord led the PFC with 454 kickoff return yards, was third in receiving with 649 yards, fourth with 702 rushing yards and was third with 268 punt-return yards. Foord was the runaway leader in all-purpose yardage with 2,073 yards — an average of 259.1 per contest during the eight-game schedule.

Those are the kinds of numbers that most junior players would parlay into a CIS career, but that may not be the case for Foord and Junior.

“Coming out of high school, we maybe could have had a chance to play CIS and have had our chances along the way,” said Junior, who spent his third junior season with the Vancouver Trojans of the B.C. Football Conference. “But something wouldn’t go right or we couldn’t afford it. Stu and I don’t come from very wealthy families. But we fought through it together.”

The quarterback still has two years of eligibility left if he chooses to pursue a CIS job, but he has accepted the reality.

“I’d like to play CIS, but no one wants to take an old guy with two years eligibility left,” said Junior, 22.

Foord, on the other hand, plans to keep going on the gridiron. He attended Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp this spring and hopes to get invited to it or another camp next season. Or, he might look to catch on with a university team — preferably the University of Saskatchewan Huskies — even though he too has just two years of eligibility remaining.

“It’s hard to say which one I’d rather do,” said Foord. “Do I want to get in the pros this early and maybe not be ready or be on a practice roster longer than I wanted to? Or do I want to go to college and maybe develop my skill a bit more?”

Earlier this year, Foord could have become a member of the U of S Huskies, but was told he would be down on the depth chart behind other, moreexperienced backs. As such, Foord returned to the Thunder for his final season.

The move was Thompson’s gain, but he couldn’t understand why Foord was back.

“I’ve got all the respect in the world for (Huskies head coach) Brian Towriss, but he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about if he thinks he has three or four tailbacks better than Stu Foord,” said Thompson.

Whether Foord is a Huskie next fall or a member of another university or professional team remains to be seen.

He and Junior would first like to play three more games as members of the Thunder. The PFC champion gets an automatic berth in Canadian Junior Football League title game on Nov. 3 in Winnipeg. That means the Thunder needs to beat the Hilltops and the winner of the other semifinal (between the Edmonton Huskies and Edmonton Wildcats) to advance.

Still, Foord and Junior know that every time they put on their Thunder uniforms from now on, it could be the last time.

“That’s going to be tough on me,” said Junior. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet because I have confidence that we’re going to move on towards it.”