SportsLife 2015, issue 3 | Page 26

Kaneski Getting Set for Senior Year at St. Paul’s By Scott Taylor, Photos courtesy of the Kaneski family As the 2015 Football Manitoba U-18 team wrapped up its seventh-place finish at the Football Canada Cup, the best young football players in the province are starting to get ready for their 2015 fall seasons. Derek Dufault and Zack Williams are off to the U of M, Mason Bennett and Brady Oliveira are headed to UND, Peter Oliver is off to York University and our old pals Nic Demski and Anthony Coombs will be suiting up this season for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argos respectively. St. Paul’s Crusaders offensive lineman Matt Kaneski, meanwhile, has just written his SATs, the tests required from every student to get into an American university. However, since he still has one year left at St. Paul’s, some folks figured his desire to write the tests would be a tad premature, but not Kaneski. This is, after all, a young man who says, “I’ve been experiencing some success in high school.” He’s also experienced his share of success on the football field. This summer he suited up for Team Manitoba at the U-18 Football Canada Cup at SaintJean-sur-Richelieu, Que., back in July and it was a big part of his preparation for the 2015 Winnipeg High School Football League season. This summer, Kaneski played mostly left and right guard with Team ‘Toba and was a captain for the annual Black and Gold Game. Kaneski (50) on Team Gold 26 / sportslife It’s great preparation for a season that will obviously determine where he plays college football. “I’m still not sure where I’m going to school next year (2016),” said the 6-foot-0, 260-pound Kaneski candidly. “I’ve talked with Coach (Brian) Dobie at the U of M and I’ve had some interest from Simon Fraser, UBC, U of T, UBC and Jacksonville State, among others. I haven’t made any decvisions and probably won’t for awhile. “But I wanted to write my SATs in order to be prepared. It means I’ll be done with them and I can just worry about school at St. Paul’s and playing the upcoming season and getting prepared for university.” Because he’s a straight A student, no matter where Kaneski goes to school he’ll raise the team’s collective grade point average. He’ll also be a pretty good football player, too. After all, the game is, essentially, part of his genetic makeup. Kaneski started playing as an eight-year-old with the St. Vital Mustangs when his dad, Brent, a former member of the Mustangs himself, took Matt to St. Vital and signed him up. However, things didn’t go all that smoothly at first. “My dad wanted me to play for St. Vital because that’s where he played,” Matt said. “But I guess I was living in the wrong area. The people who organize football wanted me to play for Greendell. But my dad wanted me to play for the Mustangs because he thought that was the best place for me to play. So they asked him to coach and I could play where my dad coached and so, pretty much since that day, my dad has been my coach.