HALL OF FAME - 1987 Crocus Plains "Plainsmen" - Part One

The legacy of the 1987 Crocus Plains Plainsmen: Part one – Chasing perfection
By: Mike Still

In 1987, the Crocus Plains Plainsmen football team established a legacy in Brandon that will never be forgotten. It was during that year that the squad – who’d joined the Winnipeg High School Football League from the Manitoba Midget Football League the year prior – became the first team from outside city limits to win a WHSFL title.

Not only did the Plainsmen stake their claim as the province’s best, they did it in commanding fashion. Over their first four games, they outscored their opponents 103-0, capping off an undefeated run during the playoffs with wins over St. Paul’s, Churchill and Daniel McIntyre – three schools who’d previously won at least one league title over the prior ten years.

More than ten players from the roster moved onto post-secondary or junior football afterwards, and many continue to give back to the city today as coaches for the next generation. In 2020, the team earned their rightful place in the Football Manitoba Hall of Fame. This is part one of their story, as told by Vincent Massey staff members Mike Steeves and Kevin Grindey.

Growing up, Mike Steeves didn’t have to look far for football motivation. His late father Doug – a member of the Manitoba Sports and Football Manitoba Halls of Fame – was involved in the sport for four decades and was responsible for the creation of all three Brandon high school football teams (Neelin, Crocus and Vincent Massey). Prior to that, he built Brandon University’s pigskin program, serving as head coach while also overseeing BU as Athletic Director. “For me personally, my dad had coached every year of my life up to [1987], so I was part of either, at that time, BU to Neelin to Crocus. I had a really good introduction to football,” he says.

“Friends that I had closest with me, our summers were filled with going to the local soccer field and just playing two-on-two tackle football the full length of the field. That was our preparation. As you got into the middle years, at that time there was a Legion Football Camp down at the Peace Gardens just south of us. That was a week-long camp down there, and that was kind of what we looked forward to for four to five years of our lives.”
One of Steeves’ closest friends throughout this period was Kevin Grindey. He moved to Brandon when he was eight years old, and the pair – who lived across the back lane from each other – bonded over their love for the sport, eagerly waiting for their chance to play high school football.

“I watched a lot of Canadian football, and Paul Bennett and Rick House and those guys were all kind of my heroes and I loved the Bombers of course growing up. Mike and I met, and we had that kind of in common, because of his dad Doug being a long-time football coach. We were both kind of tiny guys and we became fast friends. We would literally line up in front of our school at Valleyview, which was our elementary school right across the street, and I would pretend to kick the ball to him and he would pretend to catch it, and we would just run and tackle each other. This went on all the time,” recalls Grindey.

“Later on, we had a few more friends come and play, and we would always have a quarterback, receiver and defensive back, and we would play at recess without a football, which was strange because we had access to footballs and could’ve used one, but honestly it was a good way to learn how to tackle and to cover and learn patterns.
Once we decided to go to Crocus – it was the only school in the city that had football at the time – Neelin had a program prior to that, and then Massey of course we started in 1996ish, we just started working out together and running the north hill every day based on the Walter Payton video. We trained and did agility and lifted weights.”
Entering the 1987 season, Grindey, Steeves and company didn’t have much of a sense of what the WHSFL was like. It was only the team’s second year in the league, and for the most part, the group just wanted to improve.

“We lifted weights, we ran and we played football. We had no idea of how much we needed to do, we just had this sense that we wanted to get better,” says Grindey, who was in grade 11 at the time, and played junior varsity the year before in the Rural Manitoba Football League (RMFL).

“We probably knew that we were going to have a fairly decent team, but I don’t know if going into that year anyone was thinking oh my gosh we’re going to win this. We just wanted to be the best that we could be. That’s what drove a lot of us.”

Dominant defence
Grindey, a 5’8” defensive back, was part of a senior-heavy defence that played with grit and fire. Crocus’ two captains on defence were middle linebacker Scott Moore, a former tight end, and defensive end Scott Schaeffer, who was fast, athletic and played a ton of different sports.

“Scott Moore, he was really the emotional and player leader of our defence. I would’ve followed him anywhere,” Grindey mentioned. “When he was done playing, he had a tiny thin bandana he would wear and I remember he came to my house and he gave it to me. It was my most prized possession for years and years. That’s how much those guys meant to us, and that’s what made our team work. Technically we weren’t the best team maybe, but we were tough and we cared a lot about each other.”

Led by defensive coordinator Larry Hogue, Crocus didn’t have a weak spot, and gave up the second fewest points in the league that year. They were on a roll through the first four weeks of the season, shutting out River East 20-0, St. John’s 15-0, Sisler 12-0 and Sturgeon Creek 56-0.

Their front seven, which also included the menacing 225-pound Terry Wozney, Darnell Nicol and Dean Jones at outside linebacker and Neepawa transfer Corey Dinsdale, was particularly strong during a period where high school football was run-dominant and featured many double tight sets and power I formations. Even the secondary was built to stop the run, with Barry Fleury, Terry Browett, Troy Walker, Grindey and others being fast, stocky and in shape.

“I chuckle, because why would you need a defensive back in the league back then? We saw so many double tights and full-house backfields. A lot of the season I played defensive half, so I was usually covering a tight end and was pretty close to the linebackers anyway. Later on in the season with a few of the passing teams, they decided to put me on some of the recievers,” Grindey says.

“You knew every time that they were going to try and run the ball that our guys were going to be able to be there to stop it. With Wozny and Scotty Moore and guys like Dean Jones and Darnell Nichol, not only were they good linebackers, they were so smart and they were so quick to get to the ball.”

The addition of Dinsdale at defensive tackle was particularly critical. He offered stability and a bit of swagger for Crocus’ interior. “As a player, he was dominant. We used to call him the fire hydrant, I don’t know if he likes that name,” added Grindey.

“He was a run-stopper for sure, and an instant leader. I’m talking about a guy who moved to Brandon and didn’t know anybody, but then instantly became a leader. The reason he is a leader is because he’s a genuine person. We fell in love with him and his personality, his spirit, his comedy, his play and his leadership. Every position there were guys like that who were just genuine human beings.”

Unstoppable ground game and some creativity
Offensively, Crocus’ identity was formed through their offensive line and a powerful 1-2 combo at running back.

The average size of a Plainsmen hoggie was 6’3” and 260 pounds and included Pat and Rob Pink at tackle, Rob Cullen at centre, Kevin Boyd (a team captain) at right guard and Darren McTaggart and Dave Anderson, who split duty at left guard. Backups Colin Hogue and Derek Sholdice provided further stability to the group. The Plainsmen rushed for over 1100 yards during the seaso and all eight linemen went on to play junior or college football.

In the backfield was speed demon Jason Green, who was complimented perfectly by Neelin transfer Jeff Martinook, a power back who’d come over after the Spartans’ program had shut down the year before.

“[Martinook] was about 200 pounds, could bench press 300 and he ran a 4.7 [40]. We used to have a drill called the meat grinder where every five yards you put a defensive player. You give a guy the ball and he tries to run through the first guy, and so on,” recalled Steeves.

“We had our three best defensive players. I went just before and I think I ran into Scott Moore and he crushed me. I went back in line, and Jeff Martinook went through there and ran right by him, ran over the next guy and ran through Terry Wozney. He got in line and asked me if he thought he would make the team.

When you see guys like that, who are new to the program, you all of a sudden say to yourself, okay, we’re going to be better than good. Teams started focusing on the run, and they knew it was coming, but we had those front guys, both defensively and offensively that were very dominant. If they set the tone, everything else seemed to fall in place.”

Speaking of falling into place, that’s exactly what Steeves did in ’87. A smaller athlete in grade ten at the time, he played numerous roles for the team in key unheralded areas.
“I went down and played college football in the states, and it didn’t matter if I was starting or not, I always knew that I wanted to be on special teams,” he says.

“I always wanted to do something extra. As a player in grade ten, I was on all of the special teams. I could do anything from long snap, to being the backup quarterback at times. I was wide receiver most of the time, and in a full-out run offence, your job as a receiver is to block. Those were areas that I knew I could contribute, and I worked really hard at that part of the game.”

For as dominant as Crocus was on the ground, they also added some flair courtesy of head coach Doug Steeves. One of these plays was called the grain truck, which saw Boyd and one of the Pink brothers in the backfield as running backs.
“Probably in the playbook there was about 15 trick plays. My dad, in this area brought trick plays into popular culture. Every game had to have a minimum of two to three versions of some sort of flea flicker,” Steeves says.

“If you look back at the U of M’s history – he was an assistant coach on a sabbatical there –they were playing Calgary in one game, and we used to run it as a team, we would make sure the wind was behind us when we were receiving the ball on kickoff, and we’d have our punter back there.

He would receive the ball, take a couple of steps, the kickoff team would close up on him, there would be two guys behind him and he would punt the ball back up over their heads and the two other guys would chase it down. At the time when he was at the U of M, they beat the number one-ranked Calgary. That was the first play of the game and it really set the tone. We did that numerous times. There was an endless play selection.”

Overcoming two tough tests
In week five, Crocus ran into their first big test against St. Paul’s, a former WHSFL champion who was a powerhouse at the time. Much like the Plainsmen, they had a ferocious offensive line and talented back in Joey Smeets, who scored the first touchdown of the season against the Brandon boys.

Despite this, the group rallied together, pulling off a 22-20 victory in week five to remain unbeaten.

“We learned early on that the score board doesn’t define you. Some of those games, we won 56-0 and we played shitty for lack of a better word. It looked like we were great but there were things that didn’t work and missed blocks, and those things don’t teach you very much,” Steeves says.

“When you walk off the field, win or lose, sometimes you can’t control the outcome and you feel like you won, or you feel like you lost but you won a lot. For us, it was about improving every play and focusing on that play, because there’s nothing you can control other than your effort and your attitude.”

The following week, things didn’t get any easier, as Crocus took on Daniel McIntyre, one of only two schools (along with St. John’s) who’d won at least ten league titles since the WHSFL’s inception in 1933. The Maroons were one of the few teams who were pass-heavy, led by quarterback Carlos Galante.

Grindey openly admitted that the week six matchup wasn’t his finest. He was responsible for covering 6’3” receiver Ted Pietryka and was beaten on a few different occasions. Nonetheless, his teammates, as they’d done all season, had his back. Crocus stayed in the fight and defeated DMCI 20-15. The following week they trounced Grant Park 56-0 on a snow-covered field, and headed into the quarter-finals as one of three unbeaten squads.

“I’ll never forget the game against Daniel Mac. I had a terrible game. I gave up one of our first touchdowns of the season on a long pass, and I fumbled a punt deep in our red zone, and I just was crushed,” mentioned Grindey.

“But I’ll never forget Corey Dinsdale. He just came up to me and patted me on the helmet and said ‘no worries man, we’ve got you.’ I just felt that I was part of something much bigger than football. These guys legitimately cared about one another and they cared about me. When I lined up, I said I’m going to do everything I can to protect the integrity of this team and what we stand for.”

In part two we dissect Crocus’ playoff run and the legacy of the team to this day.