The Westlock T-Birds football team failed to achieve liftoff in their Wheatland Football League season opener in Athabasca, falling 32-6 to the Pacers Friday afternoon.
While it wasn’t the result the team was looking for, coach Jon Kramer said one lesson to be learned from the game is how important preparation is.
“At the end of the day when the coaches looked at it, we said, ‘You know what? They were more prepared than we were for a week one game,’” he said.
Things started well for the T-Birds. After giving up a single on a Pacers punt into the endzone, the T-Birds got their offence into high gear in a hurry.
“We drove down the field after that and got a touchdown, but missed our convert,” Kramer said. “So, at one point we were up 6-1.”
The touchdown was a result of some good work by quarterback Brett Snell, who marched his team down close to the Pacers’ endzone before finding rookie Jesse Plamondon in the back of the endzone for the score.
“It was an exciting moment for him to get his first touchdown of the season,” Kramer said.
However, that was pretty much as good as it got for the T-Birds.
“It all went downhill from there,” the coach said.
The Pacers took control of the ball and in fairly short order retook the lead and continued to add to it.
When halftime hit, the score was still reasonably close, Kramer said, which gave him confidence the T-Birds could still find a way to win.
Unfortunately, as the second half ticked away, he said it became obvious the T-Birds were just grasping at straws and the Pacers were having their way with their opponents.
Despite the loss, Kramer said the game was a valuable experience for the rookies on the team, as they got a chance to see what a football game is really like. It also gave the coaches some insight into what the team needs to do better to get into the win column.
“It’s good to get the first game out of the way,” he said. “We’ll do a lot of reflecting this week on what things we do well and what things we really have to improve on.”
Kramer gave credit to the veterans on the team, who continued to be upbeat and encouraging even as the clock wound down.
“It’s difficult to play and finish off a game when you can see midway through the third quarter that it was going to be real tough to make a comeback,” he said.
The veterans kept playing hard, he said, and were positive in the huddle, showing how to play through their actions.
It was also a show of how strong the T-Birds are mentally, that they didn’t quit and let the Pacers take over completely.
Looking forward to the home opener Sept. 14 against the Vegreville Vortex, Kramer said the team is going to work on fixing its mistakes and remember that execution is just as important as knowing what needs to be done.
“It’s not always how you come into the season, what kind of shape you’re in or what kind of playbook you have,” he said. “It’s what you do with that.”
