Westlock’s high school football team is gearing up for another run at Wheatland Football League (WFL) glory, with its spring training camp right around the corner.
Entering its sixth season, the team is in effect the reincarnation of a team Westlock used to have before hockey and baseball got big and crowded football out of the picture, coach Jon Kramer said.
“A few people in the community thought it was something the town needed, so they started it up five seasons ago,” he said. “We’ve been running ever since and getting better and a little bit bigger every year.”
Kramer has been coaching with the team for the past four seasons, only missing the Thunderbirds’ inaugural year. In that time he has seen the team grow to where it was last year, when there were close to 35 players on the squad.
Despite its name and location, the Westlock Thunderbirds is not a Westlock-only club. Instead, it draws its players from all over the region, with eight coming from Barrhead and one from Morinville.
“It’s an amalgamation from area communities,” Kramer said. “You kind of have to get over any animosity between the guys and yourself or else you’re going to get killed out there.”
In order to play in the WFL, teams have to be affiliated with a school, he said. However, that’s merely semantics, as the team represents the community more than it does R.F. Staples.
The team is open to anyone who is old enough and wants to try out and commit. It doesn’t matter if the person is a boy or a girl, or if he or she has never played a down.
“If you want to play football, there’s definitely room and there’s definitely the opportunity,” Kramer said. “We’ve got enough coaches to coach the players and teach them what they need to know.”
In fact, he said there is one girl who will definitely be playing on the team this year.
In order to play on the team, the athletes must be in grades nine through 12 in September. This means that the spring training camp is for students in grades eight through 11.
The season is broken into two halves. The first half is the spring training camp, which runs for three weeks starting May 10. The purpose of the training camp is to teach the players the fundamentals of the sport and how to be safe on the field.
Once the training camp ends, the team shuts down for the summer. This is because an Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association rule states football cannot take place while school is closed for the summer, Kramer said. Thanks to this rule, Kramer said he tells the players who want to play in the fall to stay in good shape over the summer.
At the end of the training camp, Kramer said the Thunderbirds will host a mini jamboree on May 28 to give the players some game action in a non-competitive environment.
The jamboree will feature four teams from the area, including the Thunderbirds, Vegreville and Whitecourt. The games will be similar to how Canadian Football League overtime works, he said.
For more information, or to register, there is a registration night scheduled for April 27 at R.F. Staples at 7 p.m. Kramer also said people can follow the team all season on Twitter, @tbirds_football.
