Derek Walde, who grew up on a farm south of Kindersley, is shown among his teammates on the Kamloops Broncos of the Canadian Junior Football League’s British Columbia Conference. Walde, 21, earned himself a spot on the league’s Top 50 Projected Player list at the start of the regular season. The offensive lineman says it feels good to be recognized for his hard work.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
Derek Walde of Kindersley is in his final season in the Canadian Junior Football League, and he has been recognized as one of the league’s top prospects.
The 21-year-old offensive lineman plays with the Kamloops Broncos of the league’s British Columbia Conference. Walde is in his fifth and final season in the CJFL, and it was announced earlier this season that he had made the league’s Top 50 Projected Player list.
Walde was among the first group of players announced to the list and he wound up ranked at 50 on the list. The team is off to a tough start at 0-3 on the season, but the Broncos still has seven games left to turn things around. Casey Powell and Shane Anderson of Kindersley also play for the organization.
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The CJFL is for players 18 to 22 years of age, and Walde said he is 22 at the end of the season. He said he found out about his spot on the Top 50 Projected Player list through social media, and it took him by surprise.
He noted that the league has been putting out the prospects list for the past two or three seasons, so it is a newer initiative. The list is generated internally by the league, and he said it is nice for offensive linemen to get recognition.
“As an offensive lineman, you don’t get a lot of love in the media,” he said, adding that it feels pretty good to make the Top 50 Projected Player list. “For all of the years I’ve been playing and working hard out there, and doing a lot of things behind the scenes that most people don’t see besides the coaches and other teammates, it’s pretty nice to be recognized by the league for something like that.”
Quarterbacks and other players on the offensive side of the ball, along with players on defence including defensive linemen, accumulate more statistics than offensive linemen, so it is nice for offensive linemen to make the list, he said.
Walde said the league’s president is a liaison for the B.C. Lions, so he recommends players to train at the team’s facility in Surrey, B.C. and to try out for the team. Walde tried out for the Lions in 2015 and again in the spring of 2018, but he did not crack the team’s final roster.
The football prospect said he does not believe he will get another shot at the Lions camp. He said as a shorter offensive lineman, he believes his lack of height has prevented him from cracking the roster in the past.
He noted that he only started playing football in Grade 10, so his first experience on the gridiron was playing for the Kindersley Kobras. He said Al Neufeld, who played centre on the offensive line for the Ottawa Rough Riders, was the coach when he started playing in 2011.
Walde is going to school to get his teaching degree and he said he hopes to return to teach in Saskatchewan after he graduates. He said if the right opportunity came up, he would also like to coach football in the future. As for the immediate future, he said he wants the team to have a strong finish to the season.
“I just want to be consistent game in and game out,” he said, recognizing that he cannot expect to pad his statistics as an offensive lineman. “As a team, I want to see us, hopefully, somehow make our way into the playoffs.”
The Broncos have not been in the playoffs for a couple of seasons, so Walde said he would like to play another playoff game and it would be a nice way to end his CJFL career. He added that he did not come from a family of football players, so he learned the game in high school and he credits his coaches for helping to shape him as a player.
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