Head south, young man

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This article was published 23/09/2024 (549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryan Wirtzfeld didn’t want to look back on this time with regret.

The Winnipeg teen was well on his way to taking the proverbial next step in his football career after emerging as one of the province’s premier high school quarterbacks with the Oak Park Raiders last season.

Significant interest from several top Canadian university programs swirled as he entered Grade 12, and it was almost a certainty that his stock — and post-secondary options — would rise again in his final go with a Raiders squad that came agonizingly close to the Winnipeg High School Football League’s AAAA conference championship game last fall.

When interest in his talents grew among U.S. schools, the Alberta-born pivot was left with a difficult decision on whether to finish his high school career at home or re-classify and head south.

“I’ve always been open to the idea,” Wirtzfeld told the Free Press recently of playing high school football in the States.

It culminated with Wirtzfeld making a rare step to transfer to The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tenn., earlier this summer.

Wirtzfeld flip-flopped over numerous conversations with his mom as the two navigated the pros and cons of leaving Winnipeg.

One belief prevailed: Wirtzfeld would be better prepared by starting the next two years at an American program than playing one more season at Oak Park and likely sitting in his first year of university.

“I don’t want to be sitting years down the road and say, ‘I wish I took this opportunity,’” said Wirtzfeld, 17.

“I had a great thing going back home so I definitely considered everything, but, in terms of development, I think that I was about at the end of what I could learn from playing in Manitoba and I came down here not even necessarily to get looks from American schools, but to just become a better quarterback.”

The left-handed signal-caller has lit up the scene since arriving.

Through five contests, Wirtzfeld has tossed for 982 yards and 10 touchdowns to just two interceptions while rushing for another two touchdowns, leading the Feet to a 3-2 record.

Webb School head coach Evan Gay said it’s been all the more impressive watching Wirtzfeld find success in Division 2 AA of the private school league in the middle region, where he’s facing three and four-star recruits who hold multiple offers to NCAA Division 1 programs.

“What I saw on film up there, I thought this guy could come down here and be a really good quarterback and he’s proven that to be the case, so far,” Gay said of his quarterback, who has completed 65 per cent of his passes.

“Usually, especially for a quarterback coming from the Canadian game to the American game, there’s definitely some adjustments that you have to make and, man, he’s just done a great job of it.”

Wirtzfeld had originally planned to transfer to St. Thomas More School in Connecticut, where he would have enrolled last January, but that trip was put on hold after he dislocated his kneecap in the WHSFL semi-final against Dakota.

“I don’t want to be sitting years down the road and say, ‘I wish I took this opportunity.’”–Ryan Wirtzfeld

In the ensuing months, Gay was fighting to keep the football program at Webb alive. The Feet was an eight-man football program until it changed to 11-a-side in 2019. With a young and building program, it’s become imperative for the coach to explore outside of the state — and beyond the border — for talent.

Gay, who brought down 11 Canadians — eight from Québec, one from B.C. and one from Alberta — including Wirtzfeld, was quickly sold by what he saw on tape of the Winnipegger and, despite bringing down another quarterback from Québec, was committed to him as his starter.

Wirtzfeld was also sold on throwing to four-star wide receiver Joel Wyatt, who has generated interest from 30 NCAA Division 1 programs as the No. 3 pass catcher in the state.

In their fourth game together, Wirtzfeld and Wyatt connected nine times for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

There’s been an adjustment to playing against 11 defenders instead of the 12 that Wirtzfeld grew up reading. In America, the narrower field allows defences to play an array of coverages, which make it difficult for a young quarterback to decipher.

Despite some growing pains, Wirtzfeld and Gay are encouraged by the early signs and are positive things will only get better.

“That’s what makes Ryan so dangerous is not only does he have the physical attributes of a great quarterback — his arm talent is very good, can make almost every throw on the field — but then you add in his intelligence and the way he sees the defence,” said Gay, who was especially impressed by Wirtzfeld’s ability to grasp the playbook.

“I knew there was going to be a little bit of an adjustment period but I thought with his intelligence and my coaching ability, that we could work through it pretty quickly and we’ve been able to do that.”

Oak Park head coach Chris Ollson knows all about what Wirtzfeld brings to the table. It’s partly why he was admittedly disappointed to see his quarterback leave, but a decision he understood given the facilities and exposure the teen will receive.

“He checks all the boxes as a quarterback,” said Ollson, who still talks to Wirtzfeld every week.

“He’s probably kind of a pioneer and starting to open up the doors and, hopefully, open the border so we get more colleges and universities looking up north for talent because it’s here, it’s here in Manitoba for sure.”

Wirtzfeld is hopeful the next two seasons will yield similar interest to what he had in Winnipeg. In any case, he knows he won’t regret giving it a try.

“Like I said, who knows, two years from now I could be playing Canadian university football or I could be playing American college football. But in terms of development, I feel like I’m developing much faster than I would be back home, and it’s definitely taught me a lot about myself, too,” Wirztfeld said.

“It really tries your love for the game, but if you can get through that patch where it’s really trying you, everything just becomes a lot more clear.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam