In recent years, it has been a constant struggle for the Estevan Comprehensive School football team to attract enough players.
So it was a sight for sore eyes last week when the Elecs' annual spring camp brought more than 40 players to the practice field at ECS.
Head coach Mark Schott said 42 kids had come out at some point, with an average of about 35 per day.
In past years, the team has been lucky to get 20 players to the spring camp.
"It's really exciting as coaches to have the turnout that we've had this week. It's great to be able to do actual football drills at spring camp," said Schott, who is going into his third year as head coach this fall.
The players worked on drills from Monday through Thursday, and the coaching staff organized a scrimmage on Friday.
Schott said it's important for the Elecs to have a roster as large as those of the other teams in the Moose Jaw High School Football League to prevent fatigue, especially with a tight regular season schedule.
"It's huge. We can always use lots of depth, and if we get another five or 10 bodies in the fall, our numbers will be right where we want them, in the high 40s. It'll allow us to keep guys on one side of the ball instead of having a lot of key guys play both ways. It'll keep us fresh for most of the game. This has been an exciting week, and the coaches are really happy with not just the turnout but the quality of the product on the field has also been great."
Schott said with the MJHSFL's tendency to cram games into a tight schedule, especially toward the end of the season, it's important to use this time wisely.
"That's what this week is all about. It's trying guys in new positions and really focusing on skill development, giving them things to think about and work on over the next few months. During the course of the season, everything is so condensed with the game schedule that it's hard to bounce players around from position to position. This week allows us a chance to do that and see where guys might fit.
"We did a lot of form tackling work on Day 1, and it's really important to have proper and safe tackling techniques. On Day 2, we got into some position-specific work, really trying to find out who fits where. We had a lot of new faces out this week, so we're trying to evaluate those players as well and see where they fit."
He added that Friday's scrimmage gave the coaches a chance to see "what these guys can do in a real, game-like atmosphere."
