{"id":930262,"date":"2026-10-12T13:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T13:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930262\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T13:08:12","slug":"half-canadian-half-american-the-high-school-football-team-showcasing-cross-border-co-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/930262\/","title":{"rendered":"Half Canadian, half American: the high school football team showcasing cross-border co-operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not many high school athletes that need to bring a passport to practice.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the case for a group of young football players in southern Alberta, who, during a time of heightened political tensions between Canada and the U.S., are now playing for an American high school team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The high school in Milk River, Alta. \u2014 a town with a population of less than 1,000 people \u2014 isn\u2019t large enough for a football team of its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And going into the school year, the Sunburst Refiners, in a town just south of the border in Montana, had only seven players of their own \u2014 not enough to play six-man football for a whole season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enter the idea for some cross-border co-operation, believed to be a first-of-its-kind program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sure been a pretty crazy challenge uniting them and just bringing them together, and just seeing it all come together and how well the kids have meshed has been pretty fun,\u201d said Scotty Bye, the Refiners’ head coach.<\/p>\n

\"High<\/p>\n

The Sunburst Refiners (in red) play against the Heart Butte Warriors in a snowy game on Saturday, Oct. 10. Sunburst won 53-0. (Joshua Mclean\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Part of that challenge, he says, has been getting players up to speed who have never played on a high school football team, and may have had limited experience with the game itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even for those who had played before, six-man football comes with its own differences. The field is smaller, there are some different rules and penalties, and scores can run much higher. <\/p>\n

Near-daily trips across the border <\/p>\n

Getting to the field in Montana takes a bit of extra work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Canadian players go down almost daily for games or after-school practices, meaning they\u2019ve already crossed the border what one player estimates to be about 100 times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crossing by foot speeds the process up, Bye says, with the players able to skip to the front of the line rather than wait in idling vehicles.<\/p>\n

Parents have organized carpools to take the players to the crossing, where they\u2019ll get out and walk across the border. Once past, they\u2019ll wait for a bus that comes to pick them up and bring them to the field.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign welcomes visitors to the town of Sunburst, Mont. (Joshua Mclean\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Players might travel as far as four hours into Montana for away games, and have been told next year they\u2019ll likely play a game eight hours away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the start of the season, grade 10 student Brennus Vengroff says border agents did a walkthrough with the players, to get them used to the process. <\/p>\n

He says the only issues that have come up have been a player forgetting their passport, and having to double back for it. But for the most part, the process has been smooth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the [border] agents are familiar with the boys and expect that they’re going to be there every day after school,\u201d said Julie Vengroff, Brennus\u2019 mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her husband, Adam Vengroff, says Sunburst almost feels like an extension of their own community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe border is almost non-existent. If it wasn’t for the Border Patrol itself, it would be pretty much just like driving to another small town in Canada,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

O Canada<\/p>\n

The team has made some nods to its Canadian contingent, like playing O Canada before every home game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team’s booster club designed sweartshirts for the team, including one with Refiners\u2019 logo flanked by both the Canadian and American flags. Beneath it reads \u201cTwo Countries, One Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Bye says aside from maybe some differences in accents, you\u2019d never be able to tell which player is from which country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like they’ve been hanging around each other for 10 years,\u201d Bye said. \u201cThe culture I would almost say is no different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Football<\/p>\n

The Refiners now play O Canada before every home game, in honour of their six Canadian teammates. (Joshua Mclean\/CBC)<\/p>\n

He added that part of the joy is watching everyone come together, including parents and other Milk River residents, who will watch the game and then go downtown to hang out together after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cool to see, he said, given \u201call the crap you see in politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grade 11 player Jett Butler says at first, he was a bit nervous to join the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I didn’t know if they would like us or not, but yeah, it’s pretty fun. So, glad I did it,\u201d said Butler, who recently scored his first touchdown. <\/p>\n

Bye says one regret is that the program didn\u2019t start even sooner: with more time to train up the players, he thinks about how well the team could be doing now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s encouraged that the excitement seems to be extending to younger players who\u2019ve already expressed interest in playing for the team one day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn’t a one-and-done thing, right? We want this to sustain and be the future of our football program,\u201d said Bye.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not many high school athletes that need to bring a passport to practice. But that\u2019s the case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-930262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}