Spartans gain valuable experience

Times Editor

 

Even though they’ve strapped on the pads since mid-August, the real test began this past weekend for the Strathmore Spartans Bantam football team.

With plenty of new faces to the sport, the Spartans opened their 2010 season at home to the Notre Dame Cougars.

Despite a tough 53-6 loss, there were plenty of positives to draw from the game, according to head coach Rob Musselman.

“We’ve got some kids that never played a down of football in their life,” said Musselman. “It’s good to get them the experience of getting out there and actually running into somebody. It’s a completely different feeling when you’re running into someone full speed – your teammates are never going to hit you as hard as they possibly can.

“(We) have a lot of first year kids and it was their first experience with football.”

After their first-half jitters, the Spartans made some intelligent adjustments going into the second half, where they displayed some solid offence and defence.

“We had good movement of the ball up the middle,” said the coach. “Our defence, we started to put things together – we got caught a little flat footed in the first half. In the second half we (saw) some things we like. The kids did some really nice work and effort.”

According to Musselman, the foundation for a successful team is in place and some adjustments need to be made. He hopes to contain the other team’s offence, while running the ball better when they have possession.

“We saw some good stuff and there are some building blocks (in place) and you can always start from that,” said the sixth-year coach. “I don’t get nearly as frustrated as I used to with losing and I saw stuff I liked, so it’s going good. We have some stuff we can build on.”

The Spartans will now travel to Springbank and Drumheller in the next couple of weeks, before returning home to face Wetaskiwin on Sept. 25 (3 p.m.).

Meanwhile, the Peewee Spartans will kick-off their 2010 season Sept. 11 (noon) when they host the Red Deer Steelers.

The Strathmore Spartans high school football team will also open their season this Saturday, when they host Drumheller at 3p.m.

Home games for all three teams are played at the Strathmore High School football field (100 Brent Boulevard).