The first High School Heroes game of the week will feature an all-Catholic school matchup between the St. Thomas More Knights and the Notre Dame Jugglers at Burnaby Lakes West Friday night.
Both football programs have had to deal with the offseason rebuilding process because of standout players graduating.
The Jugglers may have suffered the biggest loss with the graduation of running back Stephen Spagnuolo, who scored 34 touchdowns and collected nearly 2,700 all purpose yards in his varsity career.
The Knights will boast a much younger offence after losing four key players to graduation, but head coach Bernie Kully is confident his team is ready to battle hard this season.
"We've got a really good group of returning guys," said Kully. "We are young, but we do have experience. We've got a great group of grade 11's and a good group of grade 12's."
At the helm for the Knights offence this season will be grade-11 gunslinger Mikey Carney.
"I like making plays out of nothing," Carney said. "I think that is what a quarterback has to do -- has to lead the team in that sort of way."
Notre Dame's strength in 2010 is expected to be their defence, which will be led by Shane Devlin and Adam Bruschetta.
The two defensive giants combined for 69 tackles and five sacks in 2009, but Carney isn't shying away from the physical play.
"I can't wait to put a helmet into Notre Dame's chest."
Last year Notre Dame powered past St. Thomas More 29-3 marking their first win against the Burnaby school since 2001.
CTV British Columbia's Sports Director Perry Solkowski will be live at Burnaby Lakes West to kick off the 2010 B.C. High School Football season on CTV News at Five and Six.
The first feature of our High School Heroes season focuses on the two legendary coaches of Notre Dame -- George Oswald and Bill Cole.
Watch CTV News at 11:30 on Sept. 10 for game highlights of the Knights and Jugglers game complete with post-game reaction from players and coaches.
Be sure to visit highschoolheroes.ctv.ca in the hours following the game to watch the High School Heroes feature story and to view highlights, scores, photos and more.
