The hope is that not only will there be a number of new players come out, but that many from last year’s roster of eligible players will out to take advantage of the early start to training for the fall season.
At least that’s what Athabasca Pacers football head coach Pete Burden is looking to happen when the team opens up their annual spring camp on Apr. 29.
“Anyone that is in Grades 8 to 11 can come out and everyone is eligible to play,” said Burden, if they can find any teams or jamborees to play in.
The camp opens with a pair of equipment fitting nights on Apr. 29 and 30 with actual training running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the month of May.
“I hope to get quite a few players out and see what we have,” he said, noting there were about six walk-ons last fall that had never even seen the game before.
“I am hoping most of our guys from last year are back and this will be a good learning experience for those that are new.”
He also knows that some kids are involved in other sports and he just hopes that, if they want to play football, that they come out as many times as they can anyway.
“I don’t want them to give up those other sports for us. I just want them to come to practise as much as they can,” he added, especially since the Pacers will not have any exhibition games this season due to more changes to the league structure.
“We are back to just one league again, so it’s going to be fairly competitive right at the start,” he said.
