Young football players hoping to suit up in Raiders’ blue and white no longer have to wait for Grade 10 to get involved in the action, as Davidson School is starting up a junior football team this September.

Trevor Ouellette, town recreation director and head coach of the junior team, said the new club would welcome boys and girls from grades 7 to 9 to tryout for the Raiders’ junior football team. He said tryouts would start the second week of school with a focus on introducing the young players to tackle football.

“We’re planning for 13 to 15 kids coming out,” Ouellette said. “If we get 15, we’re laughing. It’s male and female. If the girls feel comfortable getting hit, they are more than welcome to come out.”

Kids who make the team will be charged a fee to help pay for the team’s expenses, with the rest of the money needed to start up the club coming from a community grant from Sask. Lotteries. The school decided to put together a junior team in order to make better use of the new field behind the school and to create a feeder system into the senior team.

Ouellette said it is unfair to suit up a senior team with little to no experience in organized football and put them into action against other clubs that have kids that have been playing the game for the past four years. He added another benefit of junior football is to get the kids more active and challenged both mentally and physically.

“You learn a lot about yourself, about what you can do and what you can’t do,” he said. “You are put into a lot of intense one-on-one battles, especially in six-man football.  I played 12-man football for seven years in the city and the first three or four years you never get to touch the ball, you just run up and down the field. With six-man, you can’t hide. You’re involved. It’s a lot of fun.”

To read more please see the Sept. 3 print edition of The Davidson Leader.