Minor football in Meadow Lake is about to score a major touchdown when it comes to a unique training opportunity for young athletes. Next month, for one day only, the Saskatchewan Selects Football Club, which is based in Moose Jaw, will be making a stop in Meadow Lake for one of its new rural skills camps. According to Matt Sheridan of the Saskatchewan Selects, this will be a tremendous opportunity for players and coaches alike to improve their skills on and off the field.

“Selects Football started out 14 years ago with a couple of football-crazy families here in the Moose Jaw area taking their kids to what are called the offence-defence (OD) camps down in the U.S.,” Sheridan said. “That later developed into an off-season skill development program. In its current iteration, we spend four months of the winter practicing indoors… we have about 50 coaches and this past year we had more than 300 families from in excess of 60 communities participating. We offer four months of skill development with these coaches who are made up of former CFL players, current university players and more.” Sheridan went on to say the Selects was built on a passion for football adding the basic foundation of the program is skill development for young players with the ultimate hope of having the athletes use football as a vehicle to further their education and better their lives. Sheridan also said he is excited to see the Selects take its program on the road in the form of the rural skills camps, adding he looks forward to the Meadow Lake camp May 25. “One of the impediments to participating in Selects is geographic,” he said. “We want to sort of flip the script on that and take the Selects experience to some of the communities in rural Saskatchewan that, in the eyes of our directors, represent these hotbeds of football talent and potential… We’ve been able to work with Coleton Ethier of Meadow Lake Minor Football and the high school football program in Meadow Lake, and we came up with the May 25 date.”

Ethier, who launched Meadow Lake Minor Football last year, confirmed he will also be heading up – as Sheridan alluded to – a resurrected football program at Carpenter High School starting this fall. “The high school program is having a spring camp the last week of April,” Ethier said. “Then, the team will be fired up again in the fall.” As a former Spartan, Ethier said he is more than pleased to see the return of high school football at CHS. “This is a huge thing for Meadow Lake,” he said. “It’s going to give kids another opportunity to play sports, and to gain important lessons in life they may not have been able to get elsewhere. Football gave me a pathway to university and now there will be a chance for others to do the same.” Ethier also said he is looking forward to the Selects rural skills camp. “Any time we can get some extra coaching, especially from coaches with experience in the CFL or at the university level, it’s beneficial not only for Meadow Lake but for football throughout the entire area,” he said.

Sheridan also said, by introducing the sport to athletes at a young age, it will only mean good things for those who later compete at the high school level. “Football is built on the fundamentals, no matter what level you’re at,” he said. “Whether you’re in minor football or the CFL, every practice begins with the fundamentals… This is a skills development camp, not only for the kids but also for the coaches.” Sheridan said, in most small communities, there is a struggle to not only recruit players but to also recruit coaches. “Competency of coaches is very important because, if you have better coaches, you will have better players, “ he noted. “We’re incorporating a coaching skills development component to these camps by having a couple different sessions throughout the planned itinerary address coaching presentation.”

The camp is open to any and all young athletes interested in the sport of football. “We want to reach as broad an audience as possible,” Sheridan said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, what your skill level is, we want to help you learn more about the game and be more proficient.”

For more information visit selectsfootball.com.