The Martensville High School Royals football team just celebrated a huge win on Saturday, November 13th after playing an undefeated season of football and winning the Provincial finals. This year’s team consisted of 16 seniors, one of which was # 88 Toryn Swystun-Bernes.
Swystun-Bernes, who is 6’3” and 250 lbs, plays defensive end and began playing tackle football with the Martensville Maddogs as a Peewee and then as a Bantam. From there, Swystun-Bernes went on to play with the SMF North Academy before being chosen for the U16 Team Sask in 2019. In the Fall of 2019, he began playing with the Martensville Royals as a starter in his rookie year. This past year was a big achievement for the young football player as he was asked to come play with the North Sask Varsity team.
In 2020, Swystun-Bernes was invited to play on the Western Canadian U16 All Star team; however, SMF was forced to cancel all spring football due to the COVID pandemic. Following that, SMF created a modified league in which Swystun-Bernes was named most outstanding lineman in the league. This past year, he played the SMF 2021 Spring Season, followed by his last season of high school football as a captain.
Having won numerous awards during his football career, Swystun-Bernes has also been named to the CFC Top 100 on numerous occasions.
Earlier this month, Toryn was offered a scholarship through the University of Regina Rams, where he will be taking Business Admin. “It was an unreal and shocking feeling that the Rams saw my potential and how I could fit into their roster enough to cover my university degree. I plan on making it well worth their investment every time I am on the field.” Following university, Toryn would like to continue pursuing football by playing in the CFL or NFL.
Having dealt with fine motor skills delays, speech and language delays, and Dyslexia, Swystun-Bernes puts in even more work to ensure he can succeed both on and off the field. As a way to improve fine motor skills, the young athlete keeps his fitness level high.
Next year, Toryn is looking forward to playing for Rams Head Coach Mark McConkey; however, credits much of his success to some of his past coaches including Grant Currie, James Mueller, Carter Dyck, Chad Palmer, Brian Guebert, and current coach of his provincial championship team the Martensville Royals, Craig Robertson.
Raised by a single mother, Swystun-Bernes knows what hard work looks like and pushes himself to ensure he makes his coaches proud. “Thank you to my mom Pamela, who raised me and never missed a game or practice while working multiple jobs. Also, thank you to Derek & Margie Bertsch, Marla Janzen & Ray Dulos, and my siblings Kaine, Sydney and Zaylan for all the support throughout the years.”
