Kolby Dyck, Ryan Eggen and Kyle Seipp of the ECS Elecs football team have recently received invitations to the Regina Thunder junior football team spring tryouts.
The tryouts are not until May 1 to 3 but each individual had to earn a spot by participating in the open invite indoor camps in Moose Jaw this past winter. The camps were open to players graduating from high school or athletes from ages 17 to 22.
There were four camps held in the months of January, February and March. The camps featured 225 athletes with only 125 receiving an invitation for spring tryouts.
Eggen and Seipp both attended all four camps, but Dyck only attended the final two. At first he was nervous having been able to attend only two of the four camps He was not sure if the coaches were going to pay as much attention to him, or take him seriously compared to other athletes who attended all camps.
Once he started participating in the camps he just focused on football.
“I was able to go in there with full intensity and show them what I can do,” Dyck said.
Dyck plays fullback and believes the toughness he showed playing the position caught the eyes of some coaches.
“I don’t like to go down. I go in there and if I get hit down I get right back up. So I feel that’s maybe what they liked the most,” Dyck added.
The three players all agreed that the coaches at the camps were looking for athletes who are coachable and have a willingness to learn, and the three agreed they possess those qualities.
Seipp also added that he wasn’t sure what the coaches liked about what he did, however he said he did what was asked of him and he was willing to try anything new and learn.
He plays on the defensive line and throughout the camps was confident that he was going to get invited to the spring tryouts.
“You got to play confident and make sure you get noticed, I felt (that) was the main thing,” Seipp said.
Even though there were other defensive linemen wanting to make the spring tryouts, he said that they all pushed each other to do the best they could.
Along with athletes attending these camps for the first time, including the three local ECS Elecs players, there were second year Thunder players and experienced football athletes participating in the camps.
“It was a good learning experience, learning from people 21-years-old; and they obviously got more experience than you, so it was pretty cool,” Eggen said.
Eggen plays on the offensive line and said that by attending those camps, he was able to improve his skills and he will get to work on them some more at the spring tryouts.
What he expects at that tryout is more elite competition, and hopefully, make the team by helping them out any way he can.
All three players have played football together since the inception of minor football in Estevan.
“All three of us worked our way from playing minors together … through high school and now potentially play on a junior football team together is also really cool,” Eggen said.
All three agree that they need to stay in shape and continue to train leading up to the spring tryouts.
