The new head coach of the Estevan Lions Club Steelers is looking to make it easier for the bantam football club to succeed this fall.
Phil Zajac was announced as the team's new coach at a Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football press conference last Tuesday.
Zajac spent the last three years as a linebackers coach with the ECS Elecs and wants to pass on his coaching knowledge to a younger age group.
"When you look at the community and where I can most affect the future of football in Estevan, I put a lot of thought and consideration into it and I thought that head coaching the Steelers would be a good opportunity for me to help prepare these guys to make the ECS team a little stronger," said Zajac.
He's planning on shortening the team's playbook so that the players can get a small number of plays down pat before adding new ones.
"I think the biggest consistency factor in football that we're going to try to do this year is ... to be very good at doing a few things, as opposed to doing a whole bunch of things not so good."
He said there will likely be 12-15 offensive plays to start, along with four or five defensive looks.
"We'll just run 'em and run 'em till we know them like the back of our hands, and once we have that done, we'll start to add plays as the season goes," said Zajac.
"You're going to see some very unique and creative offence and defence that I think will give us a definite advantage when we play the other teams from Regina."
The Steelers posted an 0-8 record in the Regina Minor Football bantam division last year. The year before that, they were 5-3, and Zajac is hoping for a return to that form, predicting six wins for the team this fall.
"We're going to be a very fast and tenacious defence and we're going to be very aggressive. We may not be an overpowering offence, but we'll be an overnumbering offence and I think that'll be the key to our success," he said.
"I think it'll be nice if the community comes out and watches these boys play because it's always fun, especially when you play at home, to have some fans come and cheer for you."
