Swift Current’s Zach Cloutier and Team Saskatchewan won the 2019 U16 Western Challenge in Kamloops, BC when they defeated British Columbia 21-7 in the championship game on Thursday.
“I felt really good. It was tough, there was some good teams, some good players out there, but you just had to battle through and we ended up winning in the end,” said Cloutier.
The 5’8’’, 186-pound Cloutier played middle linebacker and was a team captain with Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan had defeated Manitoba 38-2 on Monday to open the four-team event.
Cloutier helped lead a defensive unit that allowed only nine points over two games.
“We made sure we knew what we were doing and made sure we always worked together. We practiced what we needed to improve on and just got better going into the tournament by watching film. We just made sure we knew what to do and changed anything we needed to prepare for the next team.”
