Andreea Resmerita – Leader Staff
The Westlock Thunderbirds are heading into their Wheatland Football League season opener at home next week with a fresh team and are hoping to be real competitors on the field.
To kick off the football season, the Lloydminster Composite Barons will travel to Westlock for the opener scheduled of Aug. 29 at 4:30 p.m. at the Westlock Elementary football field.
Thunderbirds coach Jon Kramer said about two-thirds of the 26-person team this year is new to the game, so their spring training over the month of May was focused on the fundamentals of the game, safe contact and the playbook.
“It’s sort of a month of step-by-step, each day builds on the last. It’s a really important time for us … we’re not just teaching the skills, we’re trying to teach the whole game,” said Kramer about the focus at practice this spring.
Over the fair weekend Aug. 16-18, the team started up practice for the upcoming season. Kramer noted that a lot of the players had kept in shape over the summer, which was evident once they began training for the opener.
This year’s roster has students from R.F. Staples and St. Mary School in Westlock, as well as Barrhead, Boyle, Athabasca area and Onoway, so after practice that weekend the team headed up to Long Island Lake for an overnight team-building trip hosted by a former player’s parent.
“From this point, we have four practices and then the game,” said Kramer.
About the Lloydminster Barons, last year’s provincial champions for tier 2, Kramer said they’re a really good team, and described their program as “polished.” Kids play together from a young age since they have the progression starting at the midget level.
“They’ve got a lot of years under their belt so we’ve never beat them, but we’re hopeful,” especially since a fair number of the provincial champions graduated.
Kramer acknowledged that the team here is young, but they’re doing their best to instill competition on an individual level, then teach the players how to compete as a team to hopefully win a few games this season.
“We’re hoping we can surprise these guys and score a couple touchdowns and make it a good, interesting game.”
