The Westlock Thunderbirds football team will be holding an in-person registration for their upcoming fall season at the Rotary Spirit Centre on Aug. 5.
Registration is open from 6:30-8:00 p.m. with registration costs being $75 for bantams (Grades 7-9) and $375 for seniors (Grades 10-12).
“We are definitely open and looking for anybody that's interested, even if they're not sure if they want to register yet,” said Thunderbirds head coach Jared DeJong.
“We're really excited to be able to have another season not knowing what it's going to look like. I would say the biggest thing is we're really open to anybody that's got interest and making sure we have the numbers we need for a good and competitive season.”
Although Aug. 5 is the only date for in-person registration for the Thunderbirds, registrations are open for the team up to the second week of September. The Thunderbirds don’t currently do tryouts and players are usually accepted upon registration.
“We definitely will accept any player for the fall at any skill level, or any athletic level that wants to come out and play. Everybody's welcome and we'll work with them wherever they're at,” said DeJong. “Our junior high will only pay a small fee just so it covers their insurance. It’s a great opportunity for them to come and try out to see how they feel about it and get accustomed to it without a whole lot of financial obligation. Last year, I think we had three kids that had never played before and came just for their Grade 12 year.”
The senior team plays their main season in the fall from early September to the end of the regular season in October and possibly playoffs in mid-November.
The Thunderbirds are scheduled to begin their season with a pre-season jamboree on Sept. 6 hosted in Westlock.
The Thunderbirds will begin their season with several games on the road in Vermillion and Drayton Valley before their home opener against Notre Dame (Red Deer) on Oct. 2.
The Thunderbirds home closer Friday Night Lights event is scheduled against Roland Michener (Slave Lake) on Oct. 17.
The other teams in the Thunderbirds division include teams from Parkland Composite (Edson) and OLMP (Camrose).
The Thunderbirds were undefeated last season in the tier two AAA regular season and lost two exhibition games against tier one opposition. They advanced to the AAA final with a semi-final victory against Roland Michener before losing narrowly by four points in the final.
About half the Thunderbirds roster last season was made up of Grade 12 players which they are losing following graduation.
“We had an excellent season and we're really happy with what we could accomplish last year. Our goal for this year is to do well in our league play,” said DeJong.
“We've got some new teams that are joining our league for the first time that are fairly inexperienced and fresh so there's no reason why we can't replicate our results from last year. We haven't really had any issue finding excellent athletes and we expect that to kind of continue. I would say more than the results of anything, the biggest goal is really just to improve every week and to be able to translate that onto the field.”
