Grey Cup hitting home for Schultz

In Moose Jaw every fall, hundreds of kids line up for minor football hoping to get a chance to play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
And once they're playing for the Roughriders, they may go a decade or more before they get a chance to play for the Grey Cup.
Roughriders defensive lineman and Riverview graduate Scott Schultz is one of the few, chasing that dream Sunday in Toronto.
"It's unbelievable," said Schultz. "It's one of those things where you dream about it as a little kid, and it's like a dream come true. All the planning and everything else has come to fruition and it's time to do it."
He'd better start believing it soon. Growing up in a green and white province and as someone who was 11 years old when the Riders won the Grey Cup in 1989, Schultz realizes what the fans have been going through.
Still, the fact he's going to the Grey Cup hasn't sunk in yet, and he doesn't mind that it hasn't.
"I don't want to be bogged down so much with the situation," he said. "I just want to embrace it and go out there and just let it all hang out, and come home with that Cup and get that ring."
Schultz notices the appreciation football fans across the country have for the green and white.
"There's no doubt we're the darlings of this ball right now," he said. "The Rider Pride across the nation is so thick and so strong, it's going to be unbelievable."
Schultz will be seeing Winnipeg on the other side of the ball, a big rival and the team responsible for the other half of Saskatchewan's annual festive Labour Day experience.
"It's going to be a brawl," he said. "It's going to be very physical, and they've got two prairie teams. It's going to be a knock-out, drag-out fight, I think."
Schultz' wife, baby daughter and parents will be there in Toronto to cheer him on, as will apparently a good portion of Saskatchewan, if the reception they got at the Regina International Airport late last night is any indication. He again used the word "unbelievable" to describe the amount of people there at 1:30 a.m. to greet the green and white returning from the Western final in British Columbia.
"The support, the outcry of emotion from the province and the city has been just tremendous," he said.
Schultz appreciates the support he has had from the city since he was a youngster.
"I just hope the people of Moose Jaw should have a big smile across their face and a big feeling of pride," he said.
"I know I sure appreciate every single person who has helped me in my minor football career to getting me to a spot where I could get an education to better myself, and on to the professional ranks. There have been a lot of people in Moose Jaw who have had a hand in getting me there, and I'm thankful for every one of them."

Corey Atkinson can be reached at 691-1260