Rookie and veteran high school football players wrapped up the end of spring training May 27 at the annual Westlock Thunderbirds Football Jamboree.
Teams from Cold Lake, St. Paul and Fort Saskatchewan joined the T-Birds for a day of learning on the gridiron.
“It’s a good way for the players to see what real football is like because so much of practice is drills and it’s against teammates, people you know,” said T-Birds head coach Jon Kramer. “It’s a whole other thing to play against people you don’t really know, people who don’t really care about you necessarily. The ways the offence and defense work, the learning is amplified so it’s a great way to wrap up camp.”
The T-Birds have hosted the event for several years and though the turnout from other schools was smaller than usual — only four teams this year — he said it was the ideal number to run games every hour on the north and south fields.
“All the teams come with the same mindset: we don’t keep score, the coaches are on the field, so it’s really to help everybody try a few new things and learn,” he said.
In a jamboree setting, coaches can give feedback in real time and help many of the new players learn their positions and put into practice the plays thy have learned in spring training over the last month.
The T-Birds have a roster of 48 and about half are brand new to the sport, including a few Grade 9s.
However, Kramer said it was probably the best showing in the last couple of years in terms of points and tackles, and it would get the younger players a good head start on building skills.
“The coaches have worked really hard with the players throughout the year so far so we’re really happy,” he noted.
“(Although) it’s always a challenge for coaches and the veterans because we go right back to square one and we have to teach everything again. For the veterans who’ve done it for three years, it’s a little bit of patience building, and for coaches who are excited to get into the meatier stuff it’s patience too.”
The Thunderbirds will be back in the fall for the regular football season and Friday Night Lights kicks off Sept. 22 against St. Paul.
