Although the scoreboard wasn’t in their favour last Thursday, the Westlock Thunderbirds are attributing the loss in their Wheatland Football League season opener to a steep learning curve for the fresh, mostly new-to-football team.
On their home field at Westlock Elementary School Aug. 29, the Thunderbirds were kept off the scoreboard, with a 48-0 score, against last year’s provincial champions, the Lloydminster Composite Barons. Despite the score, coach Jon Kramer said the game was excellent.
“Every first game of the year is a bit of a fire drill,” he said.
Going into the season, two-thirds of the 27-person roster was new to the game so preparations before the season opener was focused on football basics, leaving more of the difficult plays for the future.
“The main idea was to teach the players the safety stuff and then run a few plays with good execution, just the fundamentals. And we saw that in a big way with them, the effort was there the whole game,” said Kramer.
Players were getting tired heading into the fourth quarter, but definitely playing better and actively learning on the field — with a lot of brain power being put to use as the game progressed.
“We had one touchdown that almost was, we just dropped it in the end zone,” said Kramer, who teaches his team to zero in on those opportunities in the game.
“We moreso put an emphasis on what’s next and seeing if we can make the plays. That’s how you win football, with the handful of plays (where) things go really well.”
A good attitude going into games is key, especially for new players who have to leave fear behind as soon as they step on the field. This was Rikus van Ramshorst’s first game, he’s a Grade 10 quarterback, and stood out amongst the younger players on Thursday, said Kramer.
“He just had good, confident leadership out there. He made some mistakes, but we told him that’s what you do, you don’t play football scared of what might happen. You just take your chances and see what happens.”
All the Thunderbirds were fearless, said Kramer, who got a positive outlook for the future based on their bravery going into a very difficult game.
Moving forward, the Thunderbirds will be facing three of the top teams in the league first, to continue on the steep learning curve they’re already on in preparation for Friday Night Lights, the big home game Oct. 4. They’ll be in St. Paul Sept. 6 with the next home game set for Sept. 13 against another Lloydminster team, the Holy Rosary Raiders.
