It’s only eight more days until hard-hitting and high-intensity football action takes over the Energy City.
The Century 21 peewee Chargers open the Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football season next Thursday with a playoff-semifinal rematch against the Weyburn Eagles. The game will be the second part of an opening-night doubleheader at Woodlawn Field that will also see the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs take on the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles.
Kevin Mortenson, president of Estevan Minor Football, said the Estevan Lions Club bantam Oilers will make their debut at Woodlawn Field two days later with an afternoon tilt against the Swift Current Steelers. He said the Estevan atom Miners’ schedule is still in the works, but they will complete home and home dates with their counterparts from Moosomin and Weyburn, including a match on Oct. 1 when the team will join the Elecs, Chargers and Steelers for a four-game football showcase at Woodlawn Field.
“We have about 20 kids registered with the Miners right now,” said Mortenson, who also serves as the Miners coach. “I’d like to see an increase of 50 per cent. I’d like us to have about 30 kids registered in that age group. It is learn to play. We’re going to be learning to tackle and block and just the early fundamentals of the game and these are for kids who are eight and nine years old and they can contact me if they’d like to register.”
Mortenson said over 40 kids have signed up with the peewee Chargers, which features players aged 10 to 12 years old, but if any more kids would like to compete with the club they are still taking registrations. He said the bantam Oilers, comprised of 13 to 15 year olds, are sitting at around 25 registered kids right now and they could use some more players as well.
“The Estevan Lions Club bantam Oilers is formally the bantam Steelers,” he said. “We’re going to be playing Swift Current (in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League) and they’re also the Steelers, so we figured this is an opportunity for us to change names. Of course we’re more of an oil community than a steel community, so why not. We’re going to stay with the black and gold, like the Pittsburg Steelers, and there are a couple other community teams that are black and gold, but we won’t get into that.”
The Chargers are coming off a strong initial campaign in Moose Jaw Minor Football where the team went 5-2 before falling to the Eagles in the playoffs. Mortenson said there are a lot of players returning to the team this season and the hope is they can build off that success to get more kids and parents involved in the game.
The Oilers consisted of a small group of about 23 kids last season that went 1-6 including a first-round playoff loss to the Moose Jaw Razorbacks. However, being able to gain a 22-8 win over the Razorbacks shortly before the playoffs began was a highlight of Estevan’s increasing strength in the game of football.
“As long as they’re on the field I consider that a success, but for them to actually win on the scoreboard was probably one of the biggest wins we had last year,” said Mortenson, noting registration for minor football can still be done by contacting him at [email protected]. “I think we’ve gained about nine kids from the Chargers last year in that group and I don’t think we lost too many to the high school, but that age group we need to really build. I’d love if we could get about 30 kids out this year with the bantams because eventually they’re going to be in the high school program.”
