On top of his full-time duties as a field operator at Canfor's Intercontinental Pulp Mill, Mike Rositano finds time to coach football.
As head coach of four teams Rositano doesn't have much free time on his hands.
He's taken on the task of resurrecting the D.P. Todd Trojans, who are back on the high school football scene with junior varsity and double-A senior varsity teams. There hasn't been a football program at D.P. Todd since the senior team folded one game into the 2009 season.
Rositano is also calling the shots as head coach of the Prince George Axemen junior bantam and midget teams.
"It's been a lot of work, it's been a busy summer," said Rositano, who took on the task of scheduling games and on-field officials in the Prince George Minor Football Association (PGMFA) and the two local high school age divisions.
He's got healthy numbers on both Trojans teams, with 24 junior varsity players and 21 players on the senior team. The juniors are playing games this season which count in the in the B.C. High School Football Association standings, but the seniors are on an exhibition-only schedule and won't qualify for provincial playoffs.
Last week, the Trojans senior team began its season with a 42-0 loss the Prince George Polars, the defending Northern Football Conference double-A champions.
"We were nervous in the first half and they came out and scored 30 points but the second half we came out a lot stronger and actually shut them down and they only scored one touchdown in the second half," said Rositano, who coached the Duchess Park Condors to the P.G. Bowl championship in 2014.
"For a new team, I think we did very well against a seasoned veteran team."
The junior varsity Trojans opened their season Wednesday night at Masich Place Stadium against the Duchess Park Condors. The senior Trojans take on Correlieu of Quesnel this Friday at 5 p.m. at Masich, followed by the Duchess Park-College Heights game at 7 p.m.
Last Saturday, Rositano was on the sidelines watching his junior bantam (12-and-13-year-old) Axemen beat Quesnel 40-27 in their season-opening PGMFA game. The 24-player Axemen junior bantam squad will be back on the field Saturday at 1 p.m. in Vanderhoof to play the Vikings, then will hit the road for an exhibition game in Surrey against the White Rock Titans.
Rositano has also rounded up 27 players aged 16-18 to play for the Axemen midget team, the first time Prince George has had a midget team for nine-man football. To qualify for the playoff final against the Interior league champion, Nov. 20 in Kamloops, the midget Axemen are required to play a minimum of three games against same-aged opponents outside of their own league.
The midgets will travel with the Prince George junior bantams to Surrey to play White Rock on Sept. 24. They also have games in October in Cloverdale against the Cloverdale Bears and in Kamloops against the Pemberton Grizzlies.
For the junior bantams to qualify for the final they will have to win their way through the provincial playoffs, and Rositano likes the odds.
"We have a very strong team this year, we're heavy on veterans, I believe only six of players are rookies and the rest of them have played three or four years and we have a lot of returning players from last year's team," said Rositano
"It's kind of cool because if our junior bantams are as a good as we think they are and as good as they have been, we could have two teams from (Prince George) playing in the finals in Kamloops. We have a really good group of kids."
The junior bantam team has been bolstered by graduates of the Prince George Titans peewee team which won the provincial championship last year in November. Former Titans Curtis Vohar, Noah Lank and Damian Tolarko have brought their B.C. championship experience to the older age group.
Tolarko and Braedan Connor, a rookie who plays for the junior varsity Trojans, is the junior bantam Axemen quarterback. The junior bantams are also blessed with an abundance of size.
Tight end/defensive end Logan Kolybaba, 13, is six-foot-three, 215 pounds. Lank, the Trojans' fullback, is five-foot-nine, 150 pounds, and tailback Alex Stanos is five-foot-eight, 145 pounds.
The junior bantams play a six-team schedule in the PGMFA and will face Quesnel and Vanderhoof three times.
Registration in the peewee (10- and 11-year-olds) and atom (nine and younger) ranks in the PGMFA resulted in enough players for two teams in each age division. Their schedule began last weekend as well. The Prince George teams will play against each other twice as well as facing teams from Quesnel and Vanderhoof two times.
