With the new school year only a few days in, the Jasper Glaciers—the town’s six-a-side football team—is already hard at work training for the upcoming season.
A record number of players have signed up for the team this year, with 19 students already registered.
“They’re not all here all the time, but at every practice we’ve been able to run a full offense against a full defense,” said coach Fred Kreiner. “What that does is it pushes the kids who are starters—there’s always someone behind who wants to play—and everybody’s stepping up their game quite nicely.”
The team, which boasts players from both Jasper Junior/Senior High School and École Desrochers, had a strong season last year, dominating their division with a 6-0 record before falling to the Breton Cougars in the first round of the playoffs.
“We had a lot to learn about six-man football,” Kreiner said of the disappointing loss that capped the team’s 2013/14 season. He explained that the Glaciers’ division contains three fairly young teams, each with only a few years of experience.
“So it makes it easier for us in our own division, but at the same time other divisions are highly competitive and much stronger.”
Despite last year’s first-round knockout, the Glaciers are still ranked fifth in the province. With the team’s first game scheduled for Sept. 18 in Edson, Kreiner said the newly bolstered coaching staff has been hard at work getting the team ready.
With Grade 12 students on the roster for the first time in the team’s three-year history, the Glaciers will be taking more experience into this season than ever before.
Kreiner was quick to point to the support of the community as the main reason the Glaciers have seen so much success this year.
“We’re glad that people step up and volunteer sponsorship without us even asking. That’s really been fantastic for the football team, because it is an expensive sport to get off the ground.
“And right now every one of our jerseys is filled. We bought 20 jerseys; we figured if we can get 20 kids playing football we’ll be doing good, and we’ve got 20 kids playing football right now. What more can you ask for?”
Glaciers Game Schedule:
Thursday, September 18th, road trip to Edson
Thursday, September 25th, road trip to Hinton
Friday, October 3rd, home game vs Sunchild
Friday, October 10th, home game vs Hinton
Friday, October 17, home game vs Edson
Tuesday, October 28th, road trip to Sunchild
Trevor Nichols
[email protected]
