That rock-star reception never fails to send shivers down Nick Tremblay’s spine.
He knows it’s coming Saturday night when the fans of the Prince George Kodiaks gather at Masich Place Stadium to watch their season-opening game against the Westshore Rebels.
The Kodiaks have established a rabid fan following in their three years in the BC Football Conference and Tremblay, a College Heights grad who grew up playing with the game in his hometown, expects the stands will be packed when the Kodiaks trot out onto the field to begin their quest for a Canadian Bowl championship.
“As a hometown guy who played high school here and there was maybe 50 people in the stands for our PG Bowl championships, it’s crazy to see we have thousands of people there every week, it doesn’t matter, rain or shine, people love coming out to the games. It’s a fun environment,” said Tremblay, who will start Saturday at outside linebacker.
“We’re building a football brand here and it’s on the rise. There’s guys who were 14 or 15 years old when I started in the junior program and now they’re playing on the team, it’s a cool thing to see.”
Prince George has embraced junior football in a big way and the Kodiaks will get a reminder of that Saturday (6 p.m. start).
“We’ve got more people at warmup than some people have in their entire game and that’s special, that’s neat for us and it’s something we’re proud of,” said Kodiaks head coach Jamie Boreham.
“Now it’s time for us to do better for our fans because they show up every time. Our kids love the fans. They love the atmosphere and they love PG, it’s become home to some of our guys and it’s becoming that special football place.”
The Kodiaks have taken their lumps as a young expansion team that joined the league in 2022. They’ve had three years to learn what it takes to win in a tough conference that’s produced national finalists all three years Prince George has been involved.
Westshore got there in 2023, losing a one-score final to the Saskatoon Hilltops for all the marbles, and the Okanagan Sun is coming off a loss to St. Clair Saints in last year’s championship game, after winning in 2022.
Now, with a veteran-laden team of guys who know what to expect on the junior gridiron, the Kodiaks are anxious to prove all that hard work on off-season conditioning and months of running drills on the practice field will pay off in the standings.
“The last five weeks of last year we really turned around our team from a leadership standpoint, just how we functioned as a team in practice, game prep, everything, we were much more of unit at the end of the year and with all the returning players we have, that’s just carried over,” said Tremblay, who has played all 30 games in the Kodiaks’ three-year existence.
“We’ve got enough returning vets where’s there’s a culture built this year, the first year that’s ever happened. We have something to build off now and it just feels way more energetic at this point of the season. We haven’t even played one game but it feels like where we were at the end of last season. We’re coming back with a vengeance, for sure, you can feel it in the way we practice and the way the whole camp is going.”
The Kodiaks, who went 3-7 in 2024, are convinced they will be a playoff team this year and, better than that, they want to reward the local football faithful with a home playoff game in October.
“It’s our turn, we’re older, we’re stronger, we’re smarter, we’re better,” said Boreham, now in his third season at the helm.
“We’ve got a lot of returning guys and we’re going to rely on the leadership that was developed last year and ride some of that momentum we carried the last four games. We’ve got veteran leadership and we’ve learned a lot of lessons.
“People know what’s supposed to be happening and we don’t have to teach every little thing, so there’s that continuity and understanding in systems. Even when we make changes now it happens so smoothly, it’s just a little wrinkle instead of a massive re-teach.”
The Kodiaks lost some of their key players to injuries early last season. Connor Sherlock, Taeman Piddocke, Carson and Peyton Brier and quarterback Sawyer Thiessen spent significant time on the sidelines, which forced the Kodiaks to to rely on their second- or third-string players, who are now showing the benefits of all that playing time.
The Kodiaks have five brother combinations including the Briere boys from PG; Conor and Logan Johnson of Prince George; Jacob and AJ Matlock of Sexsmith, Alta.; and Sexsmith twins Dacian and Kian Fournier.
The PG roster has six internationals including running back Marcel Stewart of Chicago; starting cornerback Charles Chemali, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, and the guys from London, England – defensive lineman J.J. Aboagye, running back Simon Olafa, defensive back Kuda Mkwanila and offensive lineman Gibson Lennox.
There’s plenty of local content with Tremblay, the Brieres, the Johnson, Taeman and Dillon Piddocke, Quinn Neukomm, Hayden Matheson, Kayle Cowley, Ryder Stoughton, Alex Thanos, Lincoln Shiels, Kaiden Szarka, Levi Martin, and Asa Moran, all from the Spruce City, and defensive lineman Jason Kragt, a product of Hixon.
“Every year we seem to get better and better and every year we’re looking for more wins and it feels like we’re going to get that goal this year,” said Kodiaks middle linebacker Caden Crow, a Calgary native who has put down stakes in PG and lives here year-round.
“The guys here are great, we all get along, we all get together, it’s a good culture, good energy, and it’s somewhere we’re all happy to be. A lot of guys call this home now, I went to school here (studying business at UNBC) and I love it.”
This is Crow’s third season and he predicts the wins will outnumber the losses in Kodiak country.
“The league doubts us,” he said. “Sometimes we get overlooked and it’s a new year for us so I’m excited to for Prince George to be on the map and for teams to take us seriously.”
