If ever there was a dream team in the Royal City, this has to be it. Sports editor Tom Berridge and colleague Alfie Lau put their heads together to come up with The Record's all-10-yearanniversary New West Hyacks team
THE O TEAM
Record setters headline the New Westminster Hyacks 10th anniversary all-offensive high school varsity football team.
Starting two-time pivot and the rebooted program's only provincial player of the year to date, Ingram Jaccard, is The Record's Hyack player of the decade.
Jaccard, who holds 10 separate school records, including career pass yards, completions and rushing touchdowns, led the 2003/04 teams to their first-ever playoff win against Ballenas.
Lining up in front of Jaccard is as formidable a front wall that has ever put on a high school football jersey, and stacks up against the best-ever in the province.
B.C. all-star Nasser Jamal, who earned a scholarship in LouisianaLafayette following the 2005 season, was later drafted into the CFL by the Toronto Argonauts.
Jamie Wandell, a provincial all-star lineman in 2010, spent one year out east with the St. Mary's Huskies. Stacking up beside the two 300-pounders are two-time provincial O-liner Rama MacMillan and Chenghao Cui.
Tyler Digby parlayed his sure hands and big body into a NCAA Division 1 two-sport scholarship at Robert Morris University. Digby was a unanimous choice at the tight end position for the all-10-year team.
New West's first provincial all-star, Ken Traeger, who still holds the team's single-season record with 35 receptions back in 2003, lines up in one of the dream team's wide receiver positions.
Marc Moore, arguably the Hyacks' best pure athlete, claims the other receiver's position on the all-decade team.
Moore still holds the program's longest touchdown reception - 80 yards from Ben Davies versus Notre Dame in 2005. Moore also has the season record for total reception yards and receiving TDs, and the career reception average per catch.
In the backfield, conference allstar Mike 'T-Train' Tuangkitkun, B.C. all-star Darnell Sikorski and season/career rushing leader Blain Cawkell were among the quickest, toughest and most elusive running backs to wear the orange and black.
T-Train showed that small guys could play big in the Hyack schemes and paved the way for a long line of successful undersized backs in the high school program.
Perhaps one of the best of the small backs was Sikorski, a 5-6, 190-pound Tasmanian Devil, who ran away with the team's MVP award in 2007.
Cawkell was the go-to-guy in '08, rushing for a program record 1,576 yards, while compiling a record 2,786 total yards in a twoseason varsity career with the Hyacks.
Leading the offensive all-stars at quarterback is Torsten Jaccard, who broke his older brother's touchdown season passing record in 2008 and later set the new career mark of 27 in '09.
On special teams, John Drury, another of New West's 5-6 dynamos, was our man.
Drury racked up a record 3,964 all-purpose career yards between 2005 and '07. He also holds the school record for career rushing TDs, and along with Sikorski and Cawkell, was one of three backs to rush over 1,000 yards in 2007.
First off the bench honourable mentions are two-time provincial wide receiver Daniel English, season, career sack leader Warren Reece, and 2005 QB Ben Davies, who holds the single-season passing record of 1,262 yards in the strike-shortened year.
THE BIG D
Big bodies in the front and lightning speed in the middle and secondary.
That's what the 10th anniversary New Westminster Hyacks all-defensive team is all about.
The highlight has to be the 800 pounds of beef along the defensive line led by current Hamilton Tiger Cats lineman Cody Husband, along with Jared Read and Mike Fedyshen. Husband now patrols the offensive line in the pros, but his tenure as a Hyack featured Husband blowing up offensive lines and tackling opposing running backs for losses.
Fedyshen may have been the Hyacks' first 300-pounder but his nimble feet meant he could chase down quarterbacks and running backs like few lineman.
Read was a success story on and off the field and remains one of the uplifting tales from the Hyacks' first decade.
If any offence could get past these three monsters, then the lightning quick linebacker crew would gobble them up.
Middle linebacker Casey Chin is all heart and all talent and he's proving that with the Simon Fraser University Clan right now.
Chin's running mate during the 2009 season was Vivie Bojilov, now working his magic crosstown at the University of British Columbia. The duo formed an almost unbeatable linebacking corps for what was arguably the Hyacks best team of the decade.
Joining them are Makoto Brennen, another Hyack success story on and off the field, and 2005 Hyack Skyler Davis, as sure handed a tackler as those early teams had.
The secondary features four smart players who used their heads at all times.
Abdul Ali is the all-time pick leader with 10 interceptions, while Brent Harris excelled on the inaugural 2003 team that played hard, but didn't get results.
Brent Fletcher of the 2009 team was as adept at hitting as defending, and this year was rewarded for his leadership skills as well by being named captain of the Merritt Cententials of the B.C. Hockey League.
The last member of the secondary is the rangy Matt MacGrotty. While MacGrotty was best known as the quarterback of the 2007 team, he was equally at home on the other side of the ball, using his lanky arms and football sense to make him a tough defender for opposition teams to throw against.
The kicker is current Douglas College soccer player and team captain, Dylan Myers, who holds nearly all the program's all-time kicking and punting records.
Myers could regularly kick 40-yard field goals and holds the career mark of 12-for-15 in three-point attempts. His big leg allowed the coaching staff more choices in game decisions.
Put it all together and there you have our Record New Westminster Hyacks 10th anniversary all-defensive varsity football team.
