Lliam Wishart is looking forward to tonight’s game more than most.
After biding his time for two seasons as a backup receiver for the Okanagan Sun, the Kamloops product is finally playing a starring role and made an immediate impact in last Saturday’s B.C. Football Conference opener — taking a screen pass 63 yards for a touchdown to round out the scoring in Okanagan’s 56-14 win over the Valley Huskers in Chilliwack. Wishart caught that ball behind the line of scrimmage and burst down the sideline before cutting across the field and stiff-arming a defender as he scampered into the end zone.
Tonight, Wishart will be hoping for similar heroics with the Sun (1-0) in Kamloops to face the Broncos (0-1), who fell 37-14 to the Vancouver Island Raiders in Nanaimo last Saturday. This will be the home opener for the Broncos and a homecoming for Wishart.
“It’s a very familiar stadium and all my friends will be there, so I’m excited for it,” he said.
Is he feeling any pressure to put on an encore, to score another major?
“I’m so ready for it. I put in my time, and I’m kind of glad I put in my time because it makes it more worth it now,” said Wishart. “I was just waiting to get an opportunity and then I finally got it, and I was happy to make a big play out of my opportunity.
“It was fun, and I’m just ready to be a big part of this team.”
The Sun need players like Wishart to rise to the occasion after losing the majority of their starting receivers from last season to graduation or other opportunities. That included their two go-to guys, Kyle Kawamoto and Kyle Patchell.
They won’t be easily replaced, but the Sun have managed to reload in the offseason and will be relying on Wishart to lead the way now.
“He’s big, fast and strong, great hands and a great attitude. He pretty much embodies everything you’d want to have in a receiver,” said new Sun head coach Ben Macauley. “When he caught that ball against Chilliwack, he didn’t hesitate at all and he was determined to score. A few times along the sideline, we were thinking they were going to be able to track him down and tackle him, but there was just no way he was going to go down.”
Wishart is the obvious breakout candidate among Okanagan’s receivers this season, but he may not be alone.
“It won’t be any surprise if it is Lliam,” said Macauley. “The only problem is going to be getting him the ball enough. We’ve got to figure out ways to get him as involved as possible.
“Lliam will probably be one of the guys who draws a bit more attention, but some of the young guys might shock some people too.”
Nate Anderson tops that list, a highly-touted recruit out of Utah who turned heads in Chilliwack by scoring a 74-yard touchdown to break that game open, leaving defenders in his dust en route to giving Okanagan a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.
“Nate is one of those guys — nobody is going to have any clue about him, and then he’s going to make big plays like he did last week,” Macauley said of the kid who only turns 18 next month. “He sure takes advantage of opportunities, as we saw in the game — he was making a move on two (defensive backs) before he even hit the ground.
“Naturally, he’s got speed and he’s got great hands. We’re going to try not to overwhelm him too much mentally and just let him be an athlete.”
Both Wishart and Anderson hauled in passes from Keith Zyla, a sophomore who served as Okanagan’s third-stringer last season but will be making his first BCFC start tonight ahead of Foster Martens, who struggled in Chilliwack despite his CIS credentials. Martens is still adapting to Okanagan’s playbook and is expected to get some reps again in Kamloops.
Anderson is already seeing more field time than he anticipated upon arriving in Kelowna three weeks ago. Born in Swift Current, Sask., his family moved to the U.S. when Anderson was five years old and he had never been to the Okanagan until this month.
“I thought I was coming here for a backup role at first, to learn how to play the Canadian game. With all the different rules, I did expect an adjustment period,” said Anderson, who is noticeably mature beyond his years. “But it was a lot like the playbook that I had at my high school, so I was pretty familiar with the schemes and stuff like that.”
As a result, Anderson hit the ground running.
“It felt great getting that touchdown, getting into the end zone for the first time,” he said. “It kind of makes me feel like I was here for a reason, like I was brought here to do something.”
Anderson and the Sun don’t want to look back, though. Their focus is on Kamloops now.
“I’m really excited for the competition to pick up, to get to see what this team is really made of,” said Anderson. “I think we have a great team here, but just to kind of see how we play against better teams is going to be exciting.”
“We’re in much better shape than last week,” added Macauley. “We’ve installed some new stuff, we’ve increased our protection, and we’ve made sure that we understand our assignments better.
“It’s a work in progress, but we’re ready to play.”