Barons football gears up for season in new league

FROM PAGE 16

To ensure readiness for the upcoming season, the Barons are hosting skills and development camps every day after school this week to work the rust off and see what new talent will take the field in September.

“We’re doing skill development and teaching fundamentals,” said Link. “There’s kids who’ve played a bunch of football before so we’re getting them up to speed, and there’s guys who haven’t played before, so we’re teaching them the fundamentals of the game. In football, you’re going to want to block well, tackle well, so we’re teaching those kinds of things so we can win football games.”

Link also noted the coaching staff will be evaluating talent closer to the end of the week to see who fits where.

One of last year’s returning players to attend camp was Grade 10 linebacker Taya Graham.

Not only was Graham recently invited to Football Alberta’s U18 selection camp for the province’s girls team, which takes place from June 3-4 in Calgary, she was the only female on the Barons’ roster last season.

Graham explained this week is all about working on the basics and seeing what kind of new talent the team will have come game time.

“We’ll be working on things like tackling, blocking, and just getting in the groove again,” she said.

For coach Link, losing a third of your roster each season through graduation is just a part of high school football, but he’s excited to see what transpires.

“We had some starters in Grade 11 last year so we’re expecting them to step up,” he said.

“We’re also expecting to see some Grade 10s step up, and I’m excited to see what we have for

Grade 9s. You never know who’s coming up exactly with the Grade 9s, so every year there’s a few guys that will surprise you and hopefully make an impact next year.”