Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Mount Douglas Rams' Duke simply wants to boot the game-winner

He stands six feet tall, but weighs in at just 156 pounds, soaking wet. A more gangly football player you will likely never find.

He stands six feet tall, but weighs in at just 156 pounds, soaking wet.

A more gangly football player you will likely never find.

But with the game on the line, down by a point or two in the dying seconds, Callum Duke would definitely be someone a coach would call on to make that clutch field goal.

The Mount Douglas Rams kicker has proved his worth over the season and the graduating senior would love to get the tap to clinch what could be the team’s third straight Subway Bowl on Saturday at B.C. Place against the Terry Fox Ravens.

“It would be a sweet way to end it, personally,” said the Sussex, England, native. “I’ve never come down to that situation where it comes down to a single kick [for a win]. Mount Doug has always been a bit too strong for a kicker [to win a game].”

It’s hardly been that close for the two-time defending provincial champion Rams. But if it came right down to it, yes, Duke would be more than up for it.

“Oh yeah. I had one pressure kick this year and it was the 48-yarder [field goal] that I hit right down the middle. Usually, in pressure situations, I tend to strive and not collapse so, if it does come down to it, I would be very excited.”

That 48-yard kick was the last play of the first half of a 52-0 win over Handsworth at Goudy Field in Langford on Oct. 18 for the slight kicker.

“I’m lean. A string bean,” he said with a chuckle. “But the main thing about kickers is power has little to do with it. It’s all technique.”

And Duke’s has been very good.

His family emigrated in 2005 and Duke began to play football for the Sooke Seahawks in peewee and the team won a championship that season. He was a part of that club with Mason Swift, who helped Mount Doug win the last two Subway Bowl titles, which Duke has also been a part of.

A former soccer player, who also toiled in cricket with his father, Duke now feasts on football.

“It would be such a great note to end it on,” he said of a chance to win a championship game. “I would be all for it, personally. I’m not sure if my coach would be. He likes the dominating wins.”

mannicchiarico@timescolonist.com