The Rocky View Rage are ready to get the ball rolling on their bantam football season.
Rage president, and offensive coordinator, Paul Netzband expects big things from his team in this season’s Central Football League bantam competition.
“Our exhibition game in bantam was a blowout against the Drumheller Titans,” Netzband said of Rage’s 18-12 exhibition win on June 6 in Lacombe. Rage also beat Ponoka Broncs 21-0 in the exhibition tournament. “We have a good group of coaches.”
Boasting nine coaches in the bantam program (13-15-year-olds) and six for the peewees (11-12-year-olds), Netzband is hoping to attract more Rocky View County players to the Rage program from Cochrane, Morley, Cochrane Lake, Westbrooke, Glendale/Bearspaw and Cremona.
“The numbers are good,” he said of the 30 players per team Rage expects to field this season at bantam and peewee levels. Not all are on the field yet.
.“Because we recruit rurally, we’ve got a lot of farm boys and they’re still haying,” he said. “They’re not off the farm yet. We’re not going to argue with parents there. They’re getting a good workout.”
Once all his players are suited up, Netzband is confident his bantam team can go the distance this season, which begins next month and ends with playoffs in November.
“This year, our bantam team is poised for a championship run. That’s really what we’re going after, the Tier 2 championship,” he stated. “We had a jamboree back in June with eight of the top teams in the Central Football League and we did quite well against those teams. We’re finally seeing some the fruits of our three/four years of labour here building a program. We’ve got a great roster.”
Bantam Rage open the Central League season Sept. 5 at Rocky Mountain House. Peewees kick off Sept. 12 at Lacombe.
