Local minor football players are getting ready to get back into the gridiron.
The Lloydminster Minor Football Association has opened registration for their peewee and bantam teams. President Paul Amundrud says the organization, children and parents are all excited to return to the fields.
“They all want to get back to play. They’re all excited for the upcoming season as they usually are and they just want to get back to some sort of normalcy. With that being said, there’s policies and measures in place that we all have to follow to ensure the kids can keep playing.”
The peewee season is scheduled to start on August 17 and there will be a mandatory parents meeting in the first week of August. Amundrud says provincial competitions are usually set at the end of October or early November and they haven’t been cancelled or postponed yet.
“We’re on a slow reopening. Peewee is still scheduled to start, if everything goes well, at the regular time. Our bantams, we’re waiting for out meeting to take place in the next couple of weeks to set a timeline.”
However, there were some other setbacks caused by the pandemic, both the midget season and spring training were cancelled for the year.
“Everything else should be right on par with what it should be barring any outbreaks. We’re positive going forward.”
Teams will be following the safety guidelines for return to play set out by Football Alberta. Amundrud says they are also ensuring that they will be following Saskatchewan provincial health guidelines as well.
Under Football Alberta’s guidelines, competitions between teams or cohorts will not be allowed but is okay within the team or cohorts. Training camps, skill development and system implementation are also permitted.
The guidelines also say no member of the team or cohort will be allowed to be a part of any other sport in the current stage. If a player is involved with another summer sports camp, they will have to wait until the end of the camp plus 14 days before returning to the team.
Registration is open until the end of July.