One of the beauties of minor sports is watching how a team evolves over the season.

Such was the case with the Bantam Lions football team that after a tough regular season came out shining when it meant the most and won the division 3 Calgary Bantam Football Association championship, Nov. 4.

Despite the -20 weather ( -25 with wind chill), it was a high-scoring affair that saw the Lions triumph 48-30 over the Colts.

Head coach Paul Vaillancourt is proud of his team and says it was a great way to end the season.

"In the last three weeks, hockey tryouts were over and injuries were dealt with. We just beared down, watched a lot of game film, we really gelled together as a team and had great outdoor practises in a great facility. The coaches and players really came together,"

"We executed well. We didn't make any mental mistakes. We pounded the ball today and passed opportunistically and our stars played like stars."

It was Chase Hunt who put the Lions on the scoreboard in the first of three he ran in for the team. He also helped cap off the scoring in the game with a pass on a new offensive formation called the "Rhino" that the Lions didn't reveal until the playoffs. Normally they run the ball with the formation but in this case they added a twist.

"It's a play that's power football but it's very effect because you can go naked bootleg. So when they started keying in on the run there was a pitch pass and Chase dumped it off to our number one receiver with a 16-17 yard pass."

Game MVP Chase Hunt had a stellar outing. The quarterback was switched to runningback after breaking a finger late in the season and earned the nickname "Centaur" during the championship game.

"We played together as a team and we all mentally and physically outplayed the Colts," says Hunt. "Like the coaches said before the game, the tougher team mentally and physically is going to take the victory and we did that, so it's good win for us."

The game caps off his play with the Bantam Lions and he looks forward to joining the offense of the Cochrane Cobras next season.

Hunt and five other Lions are participating in tryouts for the CFBA all-star team that started on Sunday. About 90 bantam players are in the running for a 30-player roster and the selected team will be travelling to Las Vegas for a tournament.

The Lions had a 1-7 record in the higher Ken Toone division during the regular season while the Colts were 2-6 in the Brock Jacobs division. The Lions one win in the regular season win came against the Colts, 32-28.