YORKTON — Owen Watrych can’t believe how well this season went for him on the football field.
Watrych, a middle linebacker with the St. Francis Xavier (StFX) X-Men, won the Tony Proudfoot Award as the Outstanding Defensive Player in U Sports’ Atlantic University Sport’s conference. He is in his third year at the school, located in Antigonish, N.S., and in his second year of eligibility, as he didn't play in his freshman year.
A graduate of the Yorkton Regional High School, Watrych led the country in tackles. He still can’t believe how well this season went.
“I worked really hard in the offseason to be able to do all of this. It wasn’t out of nowhere, but I’m definitely happy and thankful that it is happening to me,” said Watrych, who has three years of eligiblity remaining.
He said it’s a “pretty cool feat” to win the award at a relatively young age, as it’s often won by fourth or fifth-year players. The biggest difference this year, he said, is he found the game was slowing down.
“From last year to this year, everything’s just so simple for me. I just go out there and feel like I’m making a bunch of plays and having lots of fun,” said Watrych.
He believes the X-Men's success was a factor in the award.
Watrych’s older brother Tristan, who is also from Yorkton, is also at StFX, and Owen Watrych thought it would be cool to play university football with him. Tristan Watrych is an outside linebacker, and Owen Watrych said they play next to each other on the gridiron.
“Our defence is really centred around me, my brother and our front defensive linemen,” said Owen Watrych.
He finds there is a bond between the siblings that allows one to know what the other is thinking.
“If you pull up the film, there’s so many times where I already know what he’s doing before he does it,” he said.
Watrych started playing minor football for the Yorkton Gridders program when he was six years old, and kept playing minor football in Yorkton until he graduated from high school. He remains thankful to the coaches and everyone else involved with youth football in Yorkton. Not only did they help with his development, they allowed him to find a love of the game.
“They know football so well. They’re amazing at what they do. It’s top of the line,” said Watrych.
He believes he played for coach Ryan Effa throughout his years playing football in Yorkton, and coach Jason Boyda for much of his time. People in Yorkton have been showing him lots of encouragement as well.
He is also grateful to StFX for their contributions to his play, as they took him in when he was a “young, skinny little kid” and turned him into a star linebacker.
“They have a great coaching staff, great workouts, great therapies, everything,” he said. “Everything’s nice in here.”
His favourite part of playing on the defensive side of the ball is hitting opponents, which he describes as fun. When he was growing up in Yorkton, he played linebacker and running back, and he tried every position on the field.
“I’ve always liked defence the most, but I wasn’t bad at offence,” said Watrych.
The X-Men finished second in the conference this season. Their season came to an end Nov. 8 in a 46-11 loss to the St. Mary’s University Huskies in the Atlantic conference championship game.
While his season is finished, Watrych still has a shot at winning the national defensive player of the year award. He and three other athletes are in contention. The recipient will be announced later this month.
