Mary Persons welcomes team from Canada Friday night

The Mary Persons Bulldogs (1-0) will play the New Westminster Hyacks (0-0) from British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on Friday night at Dan Pitts Stadium.

FORSYTH, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Mary Persons Bulldogs football program had a tough time finding a tenth and final opponent to face before the 2024 season started.

That’s when Bulldogs head coach Brian Nelson saw an email from a team in Canada wanting to come play a team in the U.S.A.

“So we were looking for a team to play, so when I saw this, I thought, ‘How cool would this be to be a part of?'” Coach Nelson said at Tuesday’s practice. “It’s not every day you get to play somebody from another country, and I think this might be one of the first times in Georgia high school history that it’s ever even happened. So, I think for our kids being able to experience that, [it’s] something 20, 25 years from now that they’ll talk about when they get together, and obviously their kids are getting on a plane, and flying down here, and experience something that they probably will never experience. The southern part of the United States is a long way from Vancouver, you know?”

On Tuesday, the New Westminster Hyacks football team from British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada took the 2,700-mile flight from the Pacific Coast of Canada to the Peach State.

“We started reaching out to different areas that we thought we could take our team to, that we could immerse them in football culture, and let’s be honest, when you talk about football culture, Georgia is like top two of the list, right?” Hyacks coach Andrew McKechnie said after practice on Wednesday.

Starting in 2011, McKechnie and offensive coordinator Darnell Sikorski made it a point to have their team travel to different states in America every few years to not only play a football game but also create memories shaped around learning different cultures both on and off the field.

“The Pacific Northwest culture is so different obviously from the south,” Sikorski said on Wednesday. “This is a school trip too, so there is some educational pieces as well in addition to the football. We’re trying to dive in as best as we can, both on the field and off the field, with what you guys have got going down over here.”

New Westminster wasted little time when it arrived Tuesday, taking its temporary practice field for a couple practice sessions just hours after arriving in the states.

“[Tuesday night], as soon as we got off the airplane, we pulled into the hotel for like 30 minutes, and then started practice at about 7 p.m. [Thursday night], we will be practicing at about 7 p.m. as well. So, again just trying to emulate what it’s going to look like on game day as much as possible.”

Before deciding to do this again in 2024 here in Georgia, the Hyacks were held back in 2020 when COVID-19 hit, which resulted in them taking a seven-year hiatus.  The last time the team did this was when New Westminster traveled to Texas for a game back in 2017.  Now these student-athletes will get to experience a taste of Georgia high school football, considered among the best in the nation.

“I have to tell you, being down here and watching film of Mary Persons, it’s a different football speed down here, and we are excited to try it out, and get our kids going into it,” McKechnie said.

Coach Nelson spoke about what it must be like for them.

“From their perspective, I think when you are looking at coming to a game like this, you want to go somewhere where your kids can kind of see what it’s like and experience, because it’s not like it is in Georgia everywhere in America,” he said. “It’s kind of a special feeling, high school football.”

Another thing the Peach State is known for is the higher temperatures, which has been the biggest adjustment for the Hyacks, according to both coaches. Even the jet lag from the long flight didn’t stand a chance when it came to that brutal Middle Georgia heat.

“When they walked out of the hotel and hit that first wave of heat, and they hit the practice field, the jet lag wore off very quickly, very quickly,” McKechnie said. “We are adjusting as best as we can. We’ve scheduled the practices in two of the hottest periods of the day that we can.”

Coach Nelson is wondering how they will deal with the high temperatures.

“I just don’t know how they’re going to handle all this heat,” he said. “They had a scrimmage game Friday night, and you watch the scrimmage game, everyone’s got stockings on, sweatshirts, sweatpants, etc.  So, coming down here and handling all this stuff, that probably is going to be the most difficult part for them.”

Creating new experiences for these kids is what these trips are really all about, according to both coaches, and they are happy they could make this experience possible for everyone involved.

“They’ve been to America and the U.S. before, but being all the way south, this is new for probably 99% of our players,” McKechnie said. “To be honest with you, I think for at least more than half, it might have been their first time on an airplane. Just stepping into the airport and starting the whole trip was the beginning of the experience for them.”

New Westminster’s coaches are hoping to win this matchup with the Bulldogs, but they know that is not the most important thing to take away from this cross country field trip.

“We just want our kids to do what they do best,” McKechnie said. “Go out and do the best they can, and we will take that as a win. If the scoreboard reflects it at the end, even better, but a win for us on this trip is immersion into the culture, seeing more and taking home a lifetime of memories.”

The Hyacks are staying in Sandy Springs and visited the Civil Rights Museum after practice Wednesday. The team also has plans to go to the College Football Hall of Fame and to the Auburn-Alabama A&M game on Saturday before heading back to Canada on Sunday.

The Mary Persons Bulldogs will host the New Westminster Hyacks at Dan Pitts Stadium in Forsyth Friday night at 7:30.