Mason Swift's abilities as a two-way football player are well documented.
The power-running, sure-handed Mount Douglas Rams back - who is also a ferocious linebacker - stands out on any field. But it's his desire and passion that ultimately make the Grade 12 athlete a star on the triple-A senior boy's gridiron.
The look in his eyes and his zeal for the game are dead giveaways.
So, with one game remaining in his high school career - at 7 tonight versus Vancouver College in the Subway Bowl championship at sa国际传媒 Place - Swift and his Rams teammates have only one thing in mind, a win to become the first team since 2000 to repeat as triple-A champions.
"You have to put everything you have into this game, because there is no next week," said Swift, whose memory of the 2011 win is still fresh.
"The last game - it gives me jitters," he said. "Just the feeling we had last year, watching the seniors - I want to repeat it. It's hard to get that feeling and I want to do my best to help my team feel that again."
St. Thomas More was the last triple-A back-to-back winner in 1999-2000 and now the Rams have that opportunity.
"It would be nice, but we're playing in the moment," said Rams head coach Mark Townsend. "It's all about Saturday and these guys going to battle against a very good team. They realize it's a big challenge and the last time we played them they had a couple of guys banged up."
That was an efficient 54-32 Rams' win back in Week 5, but the Van Col Irish were without quarterback Hunter Robinson and runningback Liam Mahara.
Unlike last week's semifinal, where the Rams could focus on W.J. Mouat's Maleek Irons, the Irish present a different challenge.
"They're a three-headed monster on offence," Townsend said of six-foot-six receiver Rashaun Simonise, Robinson and Mahara. "It doesn't get any better than going to the Subway Bowl, but it's going to be difficult."
But the Irish will have to contend with Swift, QB Ash-ton MacKinnon, Marcus Davis and Brian Dowds on the Rams' offence.
In that earlier win this season, Davis - the province's top player - had four TDs, two through the air, one along the ground and an impressive 82-yard kickoff return. Swift added three majors and Dowds hauled in a touchdown pass from MacKinnon, who threw for four majors and had 315 yards in passing.
Swift knows exactly what it will take, having won three straight championships with the Rams, including last season's varsity title, a junior varsity crown the year prior (in which the Rams defeated Van College 43-28) and a double-A title in Grade 9.
"It would be nice to have that fourth one, not only that, but double-up on a [senior] championship," said Swift. "It hasn't been done in 12 years.
"It's going to take emotion, passion, intensity - we're going to have to play the best game we've ever played.
"It's going to take hardnosed football against Vancouver College," said Swift who is being recruited by a pair of American colleges as well as McMaster, Queen's, Carleton, Simon Fraser and the University of sa国际传媒
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