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The Mount Doug Rams are back and they’re even bigger than ever

The Mount Douglas Rams are hoping to come back big bigger and stronger after winning the provincial AAA football championship.
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Quarterback Ashton MacKinnon and running back Mason Swift are ready to lead the Mount Doug Rams to another AAA football championship.

The Mount Douglas Rams are hoping to come back big bigger and stronger after winning the provincial AAA football championship.

If anyone can do it, it’s these guys.

“We want to win it again but everybody knows about us now, we’re not under the radar,” said running back Mason Swift.

The key to the Rams success is no secret. Last year Swift and Terrell Davis formed a deadly attack out of the backfield. Once Swift recovered from injury for the final stretch of the season, the opposition couldn’t stop the Rams running game.

This year should be similar. Substitute Terrell, who has moved on to the NCAA’s Arizona Sun Devils, for younger brother Marcus Davis (Grade 11). Swift is returning for his Grade 12 season while being scouted by NCAA Div. 1 teams, and quarterback Ashton MacKinnon (Grade 11) is also ready to break out. And they’re all tucked away, ready to explode from behind an offensive line comparable in size to Mount Doug itself.

“It’s such a huge line,” Swift said. “It’s going to be a different style of play from last year, and not having

Terrell will put a bit more of the load on my shoulders, but it shouldn’t be too different.”

Man-mountain Christian Krause (Grade 11), at 6-foot-4, 320 lbs., leads an offensive line with six players over 235 lbs each, plus another three to draw on, of which Sasha

Shurvin is the smallest at 6-foot-3, 190 lbs.

Not to mention MacKinnon, who at 6-foot-6, 200 lbs, will have no problem seeing over them.

As the starting junior quarterback last season, the Grade 11 also dressed for most of the senior games, including the Subway Bowl AAA final, in which the Rams overcame a 22-point deficit to defeat the W.J. Mouat Hawks 42-35.

“Even standing on the sidelines, it was great to experience it with the team,” MacKinnon said.

Not everyone on the team has grown in terms of size. Swift is actually down 30 lbs.

“Scouts really want you to hit sub 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash, so I had to lose weight to do it,” Swift said.

Through an increased workout regimen led by CrossFit Tyrannus in Esquimalt, and some dietary changes, Swift “leaned out” out and hit his goal.

The Rams opened the exhibition season with a 40-36 win over the John Barsby Bulldogs from Nanaimo on Sept. 7.

The Rams continue the preseason in Coquitlam on Saturday (Sept. 15) against the Terry Fox Ravens at 3:30 p.m.

The Belmont Bulldogs will play AA this season and opened the preseason with a loss against the Pitt Meadows Marauders, 25-24. Belmont is in North Vancouver on Friday to play the Windsor Dukes.