Crusaders’ Penner aims to make final high school magic

Running back one of Saskatoon’s most exciting players

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Aulain Penner drives downfield in the 2023 SHSAA 6A final.

In recent years and the current day, Aulain Penner is the show stopper at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Every time the running back from Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School Crusaders gets his hands on the football, the potential for something special to happen is there. When he is handed the ball out of the backfield, he can juke, jive, spin and burst in the mold of Barry Sanders.

When he catches the ball out of the backfield, he can take the reception all the way like Marshall Faulk. On kick off, punt and missed field goal returns, Penner can make crazy happen like Henry “Gizmo” Williams in ducking big guys and high hurdling small guys.

In the spring and summer, he continued to do all those things playing in Saskatoon Minor Football’s North Sask Academy program.

Now, the Grade 12 student, who will turn 17-years-old in early October, is playing out his final season with the Crusaders. He is looking to make the most in creating a last batch of memories with the team.

“It is pretty crazy,” said Penner. “Even though I’ve played two years of senior before this, it goes really fast.

“Once football season is over, it is just like, you know, it is hard. It is always like, ‘Oh. I have next season.’ But this year, this is my last season, so you’ve got to make it count.

“It’s weird realizing that this is my last time ever with these guys playing on this field for Holy Cross.”

Penner started playing organized football in Grade 2 first in SMF’s flag football system due to his cousin’s father being a flag football coach. He had been playing hockey, but football started to take over as the sporting love that resulted in Penner playing in SMF’s various programs.

“I played all of SMF five-a-side flag football,” said Penner. “Then, Grade 6 came around, and I played six-a-side (tackle football).

Aulain Penner (#26) breaks out a tackle attempt by a defender.

“Dave Blackburn, he’s a legendary coach, you know, legendary player. Then, I started playing KFL (Kinsmen Football League) and was pretty good at it. I decided football is for me, and then I started playing, you know, tackle.”

Penner enjoyed playing six-a-side for Blackburn, who was a star receiver for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football Team from 1990 to 1994. Blackburn helped the Huskies win the Vanier Cup in 1990 and fall in an overtime heartbreaker in the 1994 Vanier Cup. He would be a receivers coach on the Huskies 1996 and 1998 Vanier Cup winners.

On top of having good mentors along the way, Penner’s finds his biggest joys in the game come from simple moments.

“I like scoring touchdowns I’m not going to lie,” said Penner. “I like running fast, and I like scoring touchdowns.

“I like beating other people.”

Penner’s abilities have impressed former CFL player Tom Schnitzler, who joined the Crusaders coaching staff last season as their offensive coordinator. Schnitzler took on the team’s head coach role this season after Scott Hundseth retired from teaching. Schnitzler, who helped the Saskatoon Hilltops win CJFL titles in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, has enjoyed the short time he has coached Penner.

“It has been obviously a very big help to our team,” said Schnitzler. “He (Penner) is a tremendous athlete and a really good kid too.

“He is a more quiet, softer demeanour guy, but on the field he turns it up and obviously is a special athlete. He is very fast, very strong and explosive. We’re going to lean on him a bit this year for sure.”

Schnitzler said Penner’s most notable strength is his speed.

“He is a sprinter,” said Schnitzler. “He is a provincial level sprinter on our track team.

Aulain Penner has made numerous big plays for the Crusaders.

“Obviously, you see him in the weight room, and he is very strong too. He is twitchy, he cuts really fast, and he keeps his speed coming out of his cuts, which I think that is what gives him a lot of separation and explosiveness.”

Over the years, Penner has worked on becoming a more physical player, and he believes he has improved a lot in that department

“I’ve always been like a faster guy on the field, so I always felt going outside was better,” said Penner, who stands 5-foot-9. “Now, I’ve gotten bigger.

“I’m around 190 pounds now, so I can go in A-gap. I can like put the shoulder down and break out of tackles. That’s probably where I progressed the most.”

Penner said in KFL he was able to rely on his athletic ability to make plays, but at the high school level, he has to play smarter as well as being more physical. The skilled ball carrier said you had to focus more on running plays like the coaches laid out in order to have success.

“Guys are bigger,” said Penner.“Guys are faster.

“They know how to tackle better and cover better. They’re smarter on the field, and they’re just smarter people. You can’t just go outside every time.

“You’ve got to follow your blocks and actually use it.”

Penner believes he has become a better player and person playing for the Crusaders. With the storied history the Crusaders have, he said you get motivated to help carry on the team’s legacy and live up to a standard.

The dynamic player said he focuses on acting right and playing respectfully. He said the Crusaders players have fun, but they make sure to carry themselves with class.

In last season’s Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association’s 6A provincial championship game played at SMF Field on November 11, 2023, Penner learned how to deal with some adversity. Locked in a 10-10 tie with Regina’s Miller Comprehensive Catholic High School Marauders, a handoff between then Crusaders quarterback Elias Flory and Penner was mishandled when Holy Cross was pinned on its one yard-line.

Aulain Penner is playing his final high school football season in 2024.

Penner dived on the loose ball in the end zone and was downed there for a safety with 32.5 seconds remaining in the contest. That safety gave the Marauders a 12-10 victory.

The Holy Cross star is aware of Saskatoon’s provincial football title curse at the 6A level. The last Saskatoon school to win the 6A provincial title was the Aden Bowman Collegiate Bears back in 2009, when the 6A level was known as 4A. The levels of high school football were reclassified in Saskatchewan following the 2018-19 school year.

Holy Cross’s last provincial title win in football came back in 1995. The Crusaders have lost all 10 of their provincial championship game appearances since their last title triumph.

“I really want to win it this year,” said Penner. “Last year was more like I felt bad for the seniors.

“I want to win it this year not as much for me, but for the seniors last year and just for Saskatoon in general. We haven’t won it in like 15 years, especially Holy Cross. You know, I’m not even just doing it for me or this school.

“I’m doing it for like all the Saskatoon schools showing that we can run provincial football down here too.”

Schnitzler said in the situation of the botched handoff you console the players, persevere, move on and remember you win as a team and lose as a team. The sideline boss said the Crusaders coaches were proud of Penner and their players on the team. Looking beyond this season, Schnitzler believes Penner can have a long future in the sport.

“You know what, for him, I think it is how far he wants to take it and commit to it,” said Schnitzler. “I think he is a hard-working kid, hard-working athlete.

“If he keeps working hard, the only thing that can hold him back is himself. I think he is on the right track, and I definitely do see him playing post-secondary football at some point.”

Penner said the offers to play football at the post-secondary level are coming in, but he hasn’t made any commitments on where he will go. He aspires to play at the professional level.

At the moment, he doesn’t want to miss out cherishing his final campaign playing for the Crusaders. Overall, his best memories come from being with his teammates.

Aulain Penner (#26) handles reaching the end zone with grace.

“Definitely, the bus rides to and from games, especially after games,” said Penner. “It was really fun talking with the team in the locker room after a win.

“That has got to be the best time and practices. Practices, they’re hard work, but they’re fun. It is fun being with the guys.”

To see the 2024 schedule for high school football, check out the Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletics Directorate site at sssad.net/schedule/.

Sawi makes surprise burst on to football scene

Running back thankful friends prompted him to try sport

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Charles Sawi burst on to the football scene as a Crusaders star.

Charles Sawi will never underestimate the value of good friends when it comes to the world of sports.

For the majority of his life, Sawi’s main sport was soccer, and he established himself as a high-level player in that game. Going into his Grade 10 school year at Holy Cross High School, a couple of his long time friends and Grade 10 classmates said Sawi should try his hand a football.

“I discovered football because of Ethan Laing,” said Sawi, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 170 pounds. “He has been requesting me to come out for years for me to play and Tyrus Flory.

“I find them really special, and I’m very grateful that they told me to come and play football. It really helped a lot. If it wasn’t for my friends, I wouldn’t know how to play the sport and how sign up and everything.”

Laing and Flory had already been playing football for some time and had already committed to joining the Holy Cross High School Crusaders football program.

In the fall of 2019, Sawi joined the Crusaders junior program. When the Crusaders senior team qualified for the Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association (SHSAA) 6A provincial final against Regina’s Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School Golden Suns, Sawi was called up to help the senior squad.

“We knew about Charles (Sawi) and his abilities to be an athlete both on the track and field circuit and the soccer pitch,” said Scott Hundseth, who is the Head Coach of the Crusaders senior team. “We knew nothing about him really with regards to football.

“All of a sudden, we were going to provincials three years ago, and we called him up. We wanted him to just kind of run scout team for us. We were actually trying to kind of prepare for (Regina’s Dr. Martin) LeBoldus (High School Golden Suns).

“All of a sudden, he started ripping through our guys and our players like Seth Hundeby who plays (for the University of Saskatchewan) Huskies (Football team). Seth is looking at us going, ‘Who is this kid?’”

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that had gripped the world, the 2020 high school football season in Saskatoon and ultimately the province was cancelled. 

Charles Sawi (#29) broke off many huge runs as the Crusaders tailback.

As a result, Sawi wasn’t able to play for the senior Crusaders on a full-time basis in his Grade 11 year.

In Grade 10, Sawi discovered he loved the game of football so much that he was determined to play for the senior Crusaders whenever high school football was given the green light to resume. He quit soccer and continued to train with the players on the Crusaders senior team through his Grade 11 year.

High school football ultimately got the green light to go in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan for the fall of 2021. Almost immediately at the start of his Grade 12 year, Sawi was breaking off big runs and having big games with the Crusaders senior team wearing his number 29 uniform.

Very quickly, those who watched high school football in Saskatoon were asking, “Who is this guy?”

“He is a very talented kid, but he is quiet,” said Hundseth. “He hadn’t done anything, because of the COVID year he was off his Grade 11 year.

“Coming into this year, he even surprised us. He ran the ball with just absolute passion, and it was hard to bring him down. He is fast and a tough runner.

“He is just a great human being. He ended up being one of our captains and one of our leaders.”

Sawi said his Grade 12 year playing for the Crusaders was like a dream. Most importantly, he hoped he left a positive impact on his teammates that will be returning to the Crusaders next season.

Sawi wanted his teammates to come away pumped up from the love he showed for the game and the realization of what can happen on the field when you put the work in to be a better player. 

When he graduated from the Crusaders, Sawi could see he left that type of impact on his teammates that are going to return to the Crusaders and seeing that was important to him.

“It (his season) was very inspirational and motivational to others that are going to be playing next season with Holy Cross,” said Sawi. “I’m just very grateful that I played with that team, and we made a lot of memories on there.”

Charles Sawi (#29) can run with speed and power.

One of those memories was a bittersweet one. On November 13, 2021, the Crusaders took on Regina’s Miller Comprehensive Catholic High School Marauders in the 6A SHSAA provincial football final at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

The Marauders jumped out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. The Crusaders rallied scoring three touchdowns to even the score 21-21 by halftime.

Sawi scored the first major of the Crusaders surge on a one-yard plunge. He capped the scoring run with a 13-yard touchdown run that tied the game with 16 seconds remaining in the first half.

In one of the all-time classic high school games ever played at SMF Field, the Marauders ultimately prevailed 28-24. Miller got a touchdown in the third quarter. Holy Cross answered back with a field goal in the fourth quarter but was unable to get a go-ahead score.

“I just think about it all the time,” said Sawi about that contest. “I just think that we should have won it, because I felt like we were the better ones and we were more supported.

“It was just very unlucky. I just keep thinking about it all the time, and I wish we could go back to that classic final.”

While that provincial final brought an end to Sawi’s days with the Crusaders, it didn’t end his football career. He was offered the chance to join the CJFL’s storied Saskatoon Hilltops and jumped at it.

Sawi has participated in training sessions and rookie practices with the team. He said the players on the team have been welcoming and has enjoyed the enthusiasm of Hilltops legendary head coach Tom Sargeant.

“The atmosphere and everything has been very exciting,” said Sawi. “I’m very grateful to play with them.

“It feels like I am already on the team. It brings me so much confidence that all the guys like me and everything.”

Charles Sawi runs the ball during a Hilltops rookie practice.

Sawi said plans to put in the effort to play football for as long as he can and try to make it to the CFL or even the NFL. He is aware that Saskatchewan has produced players that have gone on to play in the NFL.

Hundseth believes the young tailback can accomplish big things in the game of football.

“He has the swagger and the personality to go a long ways on and off the field,” said Hundseth. “When he sets his mind to doing something, he just goes, and he does it with vigour and passion.

“He is a pretty special kid. The Hilltops have a good one in him. He will do some really good things.”