‘Fascinated with the sport’: High school football player balances practice, coaching

Not only does Wyley Marcinkiw have to balance football and school, he also finds time to be a coach as well.

“Ever since I was young, I was always fascinated with the sport,” Marcinkiw said. “My dad always used to tell me stories about him playing football so I was always interested in it and watching it on TV.”

The Grade 12 student at Miller Comprehensive Catholic High School is a member of the Marauders football team. While he has been a starter on both the offensive and defensive lines for the past three years, it took a lot of hard work to reach that point.

“It has flown by really fast but I’ve had lots of fun,” the 17-year-old said. “From Grade 9 coming on as a walk-on practising with the team and being a blocking dummy to starting in Grade 10, 11 and 12 and winning a provincial championship last year was amazing.

“I wasn’t like some sort of God’s gift to football, I’m some short kid. I don’t weigh 400 pounds; I’m not some big, beefy guy. I’m the shortest kid on the O-Line and probably the shortest kid on the D-Line so I have to prove who I am.”

At 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, he’s not the prototypical lineman, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming one of the leaders on his football team.

“(Marcinkiw) leaves everything on the field and he leads by example,” Miller football head coach Dean Kuz said. “Wyley’s the kind of kid that does what he’s asked and then some. He’s a really hard worker.

“He does pretty much everything except drive the bus for us. He plays guard, he played centre for us, he anchors the defensive line so he has played all over the place.”

Marcinkiw is now taking that leadership and hard-working attitude and trying to instil it in the next generation of football stars.

He helps coach the Bulldogs in the Regina Minor Football league’s peewee division with his godfather.

“I needed Christian service hours, so I coached for a year and I really liked it and they liked having me there so I’ve been coaching ever since,” Marcinkiw said.

He’s now in his third year of helping out.

“It’s very fun and coaching with people you enjoy being with and with the team is a very good experience,” Marcinkiw said.

While he’s still just trying to earn his high-school diploma, Marcinkiw said he’d like to keep playing football as long as he can.

“I’ll leave all my doors open for opportunities,” he said.

Editor’s note: A previous story indicated Marcinkiw was the coach of the Panthers. Marcinkiw coaches the Bulldogs. A change was made to correct this.