Blue Bombers’ ‘Feather Gang’ takes flight

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2022 (1096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Instead of a feather in their caps, Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receivers Dalton Schoen and Drew Wolitarsky have a feather in their helmets.

The two of them have been hard to miss lately as they’ve been practising for weeks with a bird feather sticking out of their headgear. It all started a few weeks ago on the practice turf next to IG Field — a place that always seems to have feathered friends flying around.

“(Wolitarsky) just put a feather in his helmet one day at practice and then a couple days later, I saw one on the ground and I thought it was his so I put it in my helmet and then I looked up and he still had his so I was like ‘Alright, let’s just roll with it,’” said Schoen after Thursday’s closed practice at IG Field.

“A couple other guys put them in for a day or two, but nobody’s been sticking it out like us. It’s just kinda been our thing that we’ve been doing and it’s been fun. Now we call ourselves ‘The Feather Gang’ but we need some more members.”

Not just anyone can join, though.

“People have to earn their feathers,” Wolitarsky explained.

“We’ve been handing them out, taking them away, it’s just a new thing. We have no idea how it started. It just did. Can’t even explain it, bro’. Just boredom sometimes, ya know.”

Whatever they’re doing seems to be working. The Bombers have battled injuries at receiver all season long, but a key reason the team has been able to keep rolling on offence is the efforts of Schoen and Wolitarsky.

After catching a touchdown in last Sunday’s 20-18 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Schoen now has nine scores this season. That’s how many touchdowns Schoen, the current favourite to win the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie award, had in 35 games at Kansas State.

“He just has that energy on him right now, bro’. You have to accept that and hone in on that,” said Wolitarsky.

“I feel like each year everyone’s role kind of changes a little bit and this year, he’s the guy with that energy on him.”

Wolitarsky has only found the end zone once this season, but that doesn’t mean the fifth-year Bomber hasn’t been important. Wolitarsky’s four catches for 56 yards in the Labour Day Classic were all second-down conversions that moved the sticks.

He’s also been crucial in helping Schoen quickly excel in the three-down game. Wolitarsky’s receivers coach at the University of Minnesota was Brian Anderson, who then moved on to K-State in Schoen’s senior year. Anderson reached out to Wolitarsky before this season and asked him to take good care of Schoen.

“I told (Anderson) that I would. I didn’t know Dalton at the time, but I got to know him a little bit and it was like ‘This kid has a good head on his shoulders, is a good player, and is willing to learn.’ I had a good feeling about him,” Wolitarsky said. “I couldn’t have expected this good of a feeling for him, but I’m super happy for him. I like to mentor him and he’s teaching me things and that’s how it should be.”

They sit side by side in the locker room and Schoen wasted no time in taking advantage of that.

“He’s a guy that I looked up to right away,” said Schoen.

“I knew he was a proven guy who has been here for a while doing this… Woli was instantly a guy that I just followed everywhere around and since his locker was right next to mine, I could always ask him questions.”

A few of those questions have been about the Winnipeg-Saskatchewan feud. Schoen got his first taste of it last weekend in Regina and it reminded him of his interstate college rivalry with the Kansas Jayhawks.

“I’ve definitely been hearing about this week all season. The guys definitely make it known to the rookies how important these games are and how much these games mean to not only the people on the team, but you know, the fans and all of that,” said Schoen.

“It’s definitely something that’s not lost on the rookies.”

For Wolitarsky, the battle of the Prairies makes him feel like he’s back playing with the Golden Gophers against their biggest foe, the Wisconsin Badgers.

“It would’ve been nice to have won a couple. We were always the underdog. I never beat them, so, that kind of sucked,” said Wolitarsky.

Now as a pro, Wolitarsky finds himself in a much different position. A win on Saturday would mark the second year in a row that the Bombers have swept the Riders in the back-to-back series.

“I’m winning some of these, so that’s what really matters,” Wolitarsky said. “I’m happy about that.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31