The heated rivalries of fall will all be forgotten in the warmth of spring as players from several St. Albert schools come together to become the Storm for six weeks of spring football.
The Storm, with a roster of players from the Bellerose Bulldogs, Paul Kane Blues and St. Albert High Skyhawks, plus the St. Albert Minor Football Association’s bantam program, kicks off its spring season today at the midget jamboree in Spruce Grove.
While the players are banging heads and pads in the fall as they fight for their schools, such is not the case in the spring season of the Capital District Minor Football Association.
“During the fall season there are bitter feelings between everyone but during spring ball it seems that all goes away and everyone is really good friends,” says Dallas Moroz, in his third season with the Storm.
“It’s fun to play with players from other schools. Some of them you’ve played with in bantam,” said Moroz, a Grade 11 Bellerose quarterback.
The team of Grade 9, 10 and 11 players will huddle up today at Fuhr Sports Park in controlled scrimmages at 10:30 a.m. against the Edmonton Mustangs, 11:30 a.m. against the Edmonton Chargers and 12:30 p.m. against the Battle River Shock.
“It’s way fun to kick off the season at the jamboree. It really gauges how the rest of the season will go and how well you’re going to do against the other teams,” said Moroz. “The past few years we’ve been pretty successful at the jamboree.”
Teams can dress 45 players in league play, with a maximum of 25 Grade 11s and minimum of 10 each from Grades 9 and 10.
Moroz, 16, said there are a few differences between midget and high school football.
“The skill level is a little bit lower than in the fall just because of the experience of the Grade 9s,” he said. “It’s not quite as intense either. There are only three practices a week and during the fall there is a practice every day. The stakes are obviously higher in the fall as well.”
The mild winter allowed the Storm to practice a handful of times at the Riel Park turf field prior to the jamboree. Last year the team’s first outdoor session was the jamboree.
“It’s tough finding an indoor place to practice. Sometimes you have to use a school gym and you can’t really get the full experience on offence and defence inside a school gym,” Moroz said. “Once we get outside we can get in full plays and get the Grade 9s used to what it’s like to play high school.”
The regular season is expected to kick off next weekend, but the Capital District Minor Football Association had not released its schedule at press time. The Storm will play in the Tier I and II division again. The top two teams advance into the Tier I final and the next two teams compete for Tier II honours.
Last year the Storm finished third at 1-3-1 and in the Tier II final lost 22-9 to the Parkland Predators despite leading 9-7 at halftime.
In 2010 the Storm won the Tier II final and the year before were crowned Tier III champions.
“We’re going to do pretty good this year,” said Moroz, who split time at quarterback and defensive back last year on the Storm. “On offence we have two Grade 11 running backs in Nathan Pytel and Matty Thurlin. They’re looking to have a big spring. Our receivers – Brendan Thera, Rocky [Borrelli] and Chandler [Duff] – are great receivers as well.
“On defence we’re shaping up pretty good too.”
