The mad lads have done it.
After months of uncertainty, weeks of preparation and even more planning on top of it all, Moose Jaw Minor Football is in full swing.
When it comes to what happens on the field during games, it’s the basic usual stuff. Hitting, tackling, throwing, running. The helmets are the same, pads are the same, uniforms are the same.
Off the field? Pretty much the exact opposite.
“There’s a lot of restrictions and a lot of things we have to follow through on,” said MJMF president Bryan Boys, who saw the league kick into gear on Sept. 7 with play in the U10, U12 and U14 divisions.
“We have to check temperatures every day on our kids, we have to make sure they aren’t sick, obviously, making sure they’re coming to practice feeling well. We have to keep our coaches and sidelines separated and we have to keep our fans down in numbers, but we’re doing everything we can to play football and it’s been pretty awesome so far. It’s been great to watch.”
Teams are playing in mini-league divisions, which have seen the U12 Moose Jaw Spartans and Lions facing off for three straight games and the Estevan Chargers and Weyburn Ravens do the same. Both the Spartans and Ravens have won all three match-ups.
The U14 league sees the Moose Jaw Raiders (2-0), Moose Jaw Vikings (1-1) and Swift Current Steelers (0-2) playing in one division, the Yorkton Gridders (2-0), Weyburn Falcons (1-1) and Estevan Oilers (0-2) in the other.
Nothing too extreme, until it comes time to switch up opponent groups.
That will require a two-week ‘cleansing period’ in order to ensure safety from COVID-19, with the U12 division having entered that stage and not playing games again until Sept. 30. The U14 crew have games this weekend, but will be entering their two-week break immediately after.
“So it’s tough, you’re already delayed by a week for the start of the season and now you’re going to have to have two weeks until another opponent,” Boys said. “We’re making the best of it, our Moose Jaw teams had to play head-to-head three games in a row, there’s some animosity when you’re playing each other that many times. But it’s been amazing football and a lot of fun.”
When it comes to everything around MacDonald Field -- normally the MJMF practice facility, with games played at Elk’s Field, but the lack of space required a change -- and the rest of what happens on game day, it’s all very, very different, as Boys explains.
“We’re keeping the fans limited, we have a map and they’re put in positions where they have to be,” he said. “If they’re travelling here, we want them to come right out of their vehicles, play the game and head back home. There’s no more team meals or anything like that, so there’s a lot of extra hoops to jump through, a lot of stuff we had to get on the last month and a half. But we’re playing football and it’s all worth it. In the end, the kids are playing the game and that’s all that matters.”
The whole ‘just playing the game’ thing is key. Some programs in Saskatchewan didn’t even try to start up, but the Moose Jaw group decided to wait things out as long as they could.
“There are some programs up north that just shut down, they just didn’t feel it was worth the battle,” Boys said. “We’ve kept a positive attitude, we’re working with our other centres hoping for a great outcome, we had plans on top of plans that kept changing, but we’ve made it work.”
As for the games themselves?
“The kids look fantastic,” Boys lauded. “I just watched a game where the Vikings won 38-34, there was a pick-six, there were punt return touchdowns, kick return touchdowns, it was just unbelievably fun football back and forth. You can tell the coaches and players are excited to be back.
“Then I get a text from the Weyburn Yorkton game where they had a 61-51 game, and they’re like ‘oh my gawd, the game was crazy fun, the kids were having a blast’. That’s fun football, and that’s what we want to see. It’s great to be back out playing and awesome to see the kids having a great time.”
