Kamloops Broncos

By Chad Klassen

KAMLOOPS BRONCOS

Kamloops Broncos working for win column in 2019 season

Jul 27, 2019 | 8:06 AM

KAMLOOPS — There’s not a lot to be excited about when talking about a team that is coming off a winless season. The Broncos were goose-egged in the win column in 2018.

It’s prompted predictions from some around the BC Football Conference that it will happen again this year.

“People are entitled to their opinions, and you have to earn respect. We’re not just going to be given it,” New head coach, Rob Ellis says, “You know, as last year goes, as far as people know, we’re the exact same team.”

It’s the same team that has missed the playoffs in nine of its 12 seasons. The Broncos have yet to win a playoff game in three tries.

But they hit a new low last season with zero wins.

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Now, it’s up to Kamloops to prove the league, and the community here wrong.

“It’s so tough coming off a 0-10 season, and just having an unsuccessful string of seasons. To get excitement built back into the community, we have to do that by being successful on the field. So that success we’ve had at our spring camp, and May camp, has got to transfer on to the field.”

New head coach Rob Ellis – who is back for his second stint with the Broncos – was active in recruiting from deep into western Canada.

A large chunk of their recruits are from the prairies.

“Instead of doing a scatter-shot approach, and recruiting anybody who wanted to play, we actually sat as a coaching staff and picked out positions that really needed bolstering,” Says Ellis, “We focused our recruiting efforts on those positions, and we spent a good four months canvassing Saskatchewan and Alberta, and word spread, and we got a lot of good talent from those two provinces.”

There are only eight Kamloops kids on the roster going into the opening game in Kelowna next weekend.

The one big recruit – both in stature and position – is quarterback Nick Nica – the team’s new number one pivot – coming over from the Valley Huskers.

“I wanted to go home. I wanted to go to Langley. But my friend, he used to play on the Broncos, he texted me and said ‘Do you want to come to spring camp?’, and I just was coming up here to throw the ball and get back into the groove of things,” Explains Nica, “I came up here really relaxed, and really ready to play football, and I liked it up here and I liked the players up here. Ellis texted me and asked ‘How would you feel about playing for us?’, and I was like, ‘Okay!'”

Nick Nica

Nica was part of a Huskers team that turned their fortunes around last year – going from a perennial bottom-feeder in the BCFC to achieving a 6-4 record last year – upsetting Okanagan along the way – and making the playoffs.

Nica brings some hope to the broncos.

“The biggest thing is the belief system here. We have to believe in each other, and we have to just motivate each other. The biggest thing is to always compete with each other, and build each other to be better,” Stresses Nica, “Because if the offense is always winning, then the defense is going to get better. So it has to be a back and forth, give and take relationship, and we’re doing that these first two weeks. We’re both making each other better on the sides of the ball.”