After eight years of playing football, Travis Dietrich has become team captain for the Chilliwack, B.C. Valley Huskers.
His love for the game started in Grade Eight at DVSS. He played two years of Bantam before quitting for another two years.
For both his grade 11 and 12 year, the Titans team won provincials in the tier four category.
“After that, I jumped right to junior and after graduation moved to Chilliwack,” said Dietrich.
His friend was able to get a foot in the door for Dietrich, leading to his now fourth-year participation with the B.C. team.
Drumheller’s active care, appreciation, and interest for the sport and its players has helped Dietrich through the years as well.
“The community in Drumheller is huge, we’ve got a great fan support. Everywhere I go now in Drum is ‘How is your football going?’ kind of thing so the community is huge,” Dietrich explained.
"School was becoming less and less of an option due to a lack of scholarship money and timing. His new head coach for the Chilliwack Valley Huskers had approached Dietrich, convincing him to join the team for another year instead.
“I just kind of looked at it more as a financial situation to make a decision,” said Dietrich.
As a defensive lineman, his position consists of either stopping the run or going to get the quarterback but what sets Dietrich apart stems from many reasons like his drive, age, and stature.
“I’m the oldest on the ‘O’ line at the moment, I’m the veteran, a team leader. I’m the team captain this year so what separates me is my size and I’m lengthy so that helps a lot compared to other people.”
The team appears to be growing after new leadership from both coach and captain.
“This year we are doing a lot more team bonding and stuff so it’s a lot closer, more of a family feel.”
In the future, Dietrich plans to go pro and play in the CFL, NFL, or even European football.
“I tried to play professionally in Europe, I’m on a website to get on that,” Dietrich said. “It’s actually developing really strong overseas. Doors are always open.”
Home games are always live streamed so if you can’t make it to the games check out the valley huskers Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/thehuskers/or https://www.bcfctv.com/en/upcoming-games
