That’s the idea behind a proposed Southern Saskatchewan High School Spring League, which will aim to see at least a pair of local teams as well as squads from Estevan, Swift Current, Weyburn and Yorkton take the field for a six-game season beginning as early as mid-April.
The league would be for players from Grades 9 through 12 and would be 12-man football if numbers and provincial restrictions enable it, otherwise nine-man will be considered.
“The biggest thing is these kids lost their season in the fall and we’re trying to do everything in our power to give them a season,” said MJMFL president Bryan Boys. “Those senior kids, they don’t have any film and a lot of them are trying to go play at the next level. It’s pretty tough when you don’t have any film to show coaches. So that’s another big thing for us.
And it might be some of those seniors’ last chance playing, ever, so we certainly want to give them a chance to play.”
The good thing is Boys and the MJMFL have been through this all before -- this past fall they fought tooth and nail to get a season together for their youngsters and eventually pulled it off. It was a heavily modified and rules-heavy season, but a season nonetheless.
The key to it all, of course, is where the pandemic restrictions are sitting. The Apr. 19 date could be pushed back to May 3, and even as late as May 17, with games going into late June if necessary.
“I think right now our (COVID) numbers are going down and we’re looking pretty good, but you never know what it’s going to be,” Boys said. “So you could say we’re being very flexible at this point.”
While the MJMFL is aiming for two teams locally, but that could change if registration really takes off. There will be no direct affiliation with high schools, but some effort will be given to keep players from their respective teams together, if only for the ‘playing the season with your buddies’ idea.
“It’ll be a mix of players, we’ll try and group them together by their high school teams, but no matter how we get, we’ll put things together and I’m sure they’ll all have no problem if they’re out there with a chance to play the game they love,” Boys said.
That includes the out-of-town teams, who have already thrown their support behind the idea.
“It really works out, because all our minor football centres are basically all the centres from high school, so all these organizations are stepping up to give these kids that opportunity,” Boys said. “Weyburn, Swift Current, Estevan, Yorkton, we’re trying to get all these guys in together and it’s going to be a good opportunity for everyone.”
Games would take place at Elk’s Field, practices at the Minor Football practice fields, with Boys expecting many of the rules to remain the same as they were in the fall when it comes to crowd size and distribution, parking and the like.
Finding coaches won’t be a problem, either. In addition to the multitude of high school staffs -- many of whom are already regulars on minor football sidelines -- Boys firmly believes plenty of folks will step up to help out when the time comes.
“I’ve approached all our minor teams, and all of our coaches were all for it,” Boys said. “I’ll be out coaching, we’ll bring (Sask Selects football founder) Zeljko (Stefanovic) back out, we’ll be all in. There are a lot of football guys out there who will want to be a part of this, I’m sure.”
The one thing that’s for certain is with Boys and the MJMFL at the helm, everything possible will be done to try and make things happen.
“In the fall we wrote letter after letter and made a ton of phone calls… I’m a grinder,” Boys said. “All I do is football, I’ll fight for the kids and we’re going to fight our asses off to get these kids a place to play. We’ll be loud, our parents will be supporting us. And when spring gets here, people will have been locked down, you’ll have people looking to get out there and this opportunity is one we’re hoping will have a lot of support.”
For more information, including a rundown of the potential rules and in order to register, visit www.mjfootball.ca/spring-league/.
