The Lloydminster Comprehensive High School Barons football program will soon include a junior bantam team to join the Saskatoon Kinsmen Football League this fall. An information meeting for parents will be held on Feb. 15 in the school library at 7:30 p.m. Source File Photo
Kieran Link, head coach of the Barons football team at Lloydminster Comprehensive High School, will huddle with parents this week to roll out the plans for the school’s new junior squad.
Link has organized a meet-up in the school’s library on Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. to introduce the game plan for the bantam Barons team, playing out of the Saskatoon Kinsmen Football League this fall.
“We’ll be filling them in about the new program for the Grade 8s and 9s, who is eligible to play, what our philosophy and vision is, and give them information about the new program,” said Link.
He says LCHS will have an information night for Grade 8 and 9 students that parents can also attend at a later date.
“We’re just getting the word out right now,” said Link, who is overseeing the program.
He says there will be roughly 10 teams from North Battleford, Prince Albert, Martensville, Saskatoon and the surrounding area in the Saskatoon league.
“People are pretty excited, honestly. It’s going be excellent for the school community and another opportunity for people from the surrounding area to play some bantam football,” he said.
The Jr. Barons will likely play seven or eight home and away games from late August to November.
The opportunity to field a bantam team to join the Saskatoon league results from the $28.8 million expansion of LCHS, which will welcome 300 Grade 9 students for the 2024-25 school year.
“Our school expanded to have Grade 9 students in the fall and we wanted to provide an opportunity to have football within the school for those players and the surrounding community to play Barons football at the bantam level,” explained Link.
LCHS reached out to the Saskatoon league after the senior Barons switched to the North Saskatchewan Football League last year.
“We got in touch with them and they were happy to have us in the Saskatoon League, so really excited for it,” said Link.
The Jr. Barons will play 12-man tackle football with fundraising already underway.
“So we’re in the process of acquiring equipment and we’re excited to hit the ground running with a spring camp in June that will go on at LCHS,” said Link.
The camp will run for two weeks to introduce the Grade 8s and 9s to Barons junior football.
“It will give them an idea of our schemes and systems, so it’s ‘little taster’ in the spring and in the fall they will be playing proper games and we’ll be practising a few times a week,” said Link.
He anticipates having at least 40 players on the roster and hopes for more.
“We’ll see what the demand is,” he said.
Link says the field staff will include defensive specialist, Cole Bloxan, offensive specialist, Justin Kelly and a head coach yet to be named.
“There will be a variety of other coaches as well,” he said.
Link will be telling parents he has yet to nail down the exact registration fees, but he expects it will cost about $500 a player.
“If money’s an issue, there’s KidSport grants available to offset costs,” he said.
Link also wants to tell parents about the values that football imparts.
“It involves the kids in the school community for sure and I think some of the values we try to instill (are things) like discipline, hard work, teamwork, managing your time properly, being accountable,” he said.
“Those kind of character things carry over to the classroom. Those skillsets carry over to academics as well.”
Link says a Jr. Barons team will also serve as a development team for the Sr. Barons.
“We’ll have more people in the school division playing Barons football.”
In the meantime, Link is focused on tackling a lengthy to-do list to get ready for the new league.
“We have to order equipment, instil our schemes and systems and we’ve got to recruit kids to play football for the Barons,” he said.
