The St. Albert Stars are the new bright lights in the Alberta Football League.
Co-owners Troy Pappas and Mike Bryski planted the seed money for the team to take root this season.
“We’ve been working on this for two years,” said Pappas, 28, a quarterback for the 2002 St. Albert Skyhawks. “There are already two Edmonton teams, the southside Edmonton Stallions and the Edmonton (Garrison) Army, which is more on the north side, so we wanted to bring a team out to St. Albert. Most of us are from St. Albert on the team too.”
Pappas and Bryski huddled up with the Grande Prairie Drillers in the AFL before turning their attention to St. Albert.
“It’s a perfect spot to have a football team,” said Pappas, a former Bellerose Bulldog before joining the Skyhawks in Grade 12. “Football is getting bigger in St. Albert, so I wanted to bring a team here and keep football alive here.”
Location and a strong player base made St. Albert an attractive site for the AFL to expand to eight teams.
“So many guys were floating away from Edmonton to play for other teams so we thought why don’t we make a team here and everyone said if you run it then we’ll do it so that’s why I put my foot in the door,” Pappas said. “Everyone is kind of coming to our team now so we’re stacking up pretty good. St. Albert is going to be pretty lucky having a pretty good team right off the bat.”
Tryouts are underway and Pappas expects the roster will be finalized in early May. The team maximum is 50 players because that is the number of jerseys and pants the Stars ordered.
“We want to keep the team between 45 and 50 guys,” Pappas said. “Everybody wants to play and we don’t want to keep too many guys on the team because there will be that many more standing around.”
Players in the AFL are as young as 18 and some are 50-plus.
“Our average age right now is probably about 23. Most of the guys that are coming out are from junior ball,” Pappas said. “We don’t want to stack our team with older guys per se, we want to get guys that we can build for the future as well too but we do expect some growing pains.”
The AFL, founded in 1984, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a venue for players to continue their football careers.
“This is as Canadian football as it’s going to get for men. It’s 100 per cent Canadian football with Canadian rules and it’s hard hitting. We use a legit CFL ball and it’s the same rules and same size of field so it’s pretty cool,” Pappas said. “It’s a different game. There are a lot of big boys out there at this age. Most of the guys are in their mid-20s and they’re pretty filled out so it’s a hard hitting game.”
The Stars kick off their inaugural season on the road in the May 25 exhibition against the Central Alberta Buccaneers in Lacombe.
The AFL opener is June 1 against the Army at 2 p.m. at Johnny Bright Park.
The Stars will play the rest of their home games at Clarke Park until dressing rooms with showers are built at the Riel Recreation Part turf field.
AFL teams play seven games and the top six make the playoffs. The final is Aug. 17.
Last year the Lloydminster Vandals finished 6-0 in league play, with 262 points for and 52 against.
At the bottom of the standings at 1-5 were the Buccaneers (33 PF and 157 PA) and the Army (42 PF and 244 PA).
In the playoffs the Vandals beat the second-place Calgary Wolfpack for the AFL championship and in the national final they knocked off the Toronto Titans 25-19 in the Border City.
“The season goal is to get into the playoffs and go from there. We really want to make sure that we become a contender right off the bat,” said Pappas, the Stars’ quarterback. “We really want to start off with a win right off the hop. That’s what we’re after. We’re only focusing on game one and that’s the Army and we want a W. That’s what we’re chasing and that’s what we’re preparing for.
“Going in, with the offence and defence, we’ve got to figure out how the schemes are going to work with all the guys and how we adjust.”
The next practice for the Stars is April 13 at the Commonwealth fieldhouse from 2 to 4 p.m. The drop-in fee for interested players is $10.
The first outdoor session will be at Clarke Park later this month.
“I like to keep us on turf because that is what we play on. We want to keep it as real as it’s going to be for the games,” Pappas said.
