The harder it rained, the harder the Westlock Thunderbirds ran during last Friday’s season-opening exhibition home game against the Vegreville Vortex.
The T-Birds washed Vegreville clean 39-18 in front of nearly 600 screaming fans at the field near Westlock Elementary School, and though the wet weather kept many away from the annual Friday Night Lights event, it only seemed to help the big-bodied Westlock squad.
“Vegreville’s a passing team, so it’s probably a little disappointing for them,” said head coach Jon Kramer, adding that nice weather would have also let Westlock work some passes of their own.
“It would have been nice to not have the rain, because then you get to do a couple more things. But it was a perfect night.”
The game started in the T-Birds favour, opening up with a long-run touchdown from Jacob Williston, the team’s first touchdown of the 2016 season.
“It felt good, but I couldn’t it without my linesmen. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be anywhere near that end zone,” Williston said.
“It was a good game for the rookies. They really came out for tonight.”
Giving the rookies some time on the gridiron was a big focus for the Sept. 2 matchup. With around half of the squad made up of newcomers, Kramer added that experience will be key to building a solid team for the year.
“The biggest part will be just getting them into football shape. From a coaching point you want to do a lot of things. There’s a lot of working the game and managing the sidelines. Exhibition, you can get away with that stuff, but as the season goes on you can’t get away with that,” Kramer said.
The big win, he added, would hopefully give the team time to relax and work on strategy.
“There’s a lot of things to talk about, but tonight we kind of let them enjoy the win,” he said.
A new component of the team’s arsenal for 2016, the T-Birds now have an eye in the sky.
A new camera drone will allow them rewatch games from above, helping players more closely match real-life movements to playbook strategies.
“When you draw a play on the whiteboard, it’s always an overhead play,” Kramer said.
“We try to give them every avenue to learn. There’s playbook, there’s film, there’s everything. For a lot of our players who are new to football, raising their IQ is an important part of it.”
Another major component of Friday Night Lights, as always, was the fan turnout. With pre-game estimates of over 1,000 fans, 600 parents and locals braved the weather to watch the club’s first home game of the season.
Morale, explained, assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Shayne Frith-Smith, is always an important part of team-building.
“We wanted to make sure that all of the kids played. A lot of the times, the rookies were in there. Some mistakes were made, but that’s how you learn,” Frith-Smith said.
Another long-time football fan, mayor Ralph Leriger was also on hand to help the team kick off the season.
Leriger wasn’t new to the game or the weather, having coached seven years of high school football in Spruce Grove.
“Football is played in any weather. That’s what makes it so great,” Leriger said.
The weather did have one major drawback. With well over 100 vehicles parked around the field, substantial damage was done to the surrounding grass.
Fundraising coordinator Jerry Buchko said that the team will work hard to repair the damage come spring, but volunteers from the community are also welcome to help.
“We’ll have to get soil seed and grass seed to fix the damage,” Buchko said.
“The boys do an incredible amount of community service, so we’ll bring them out there this spring.”
The T-Birds next game will be Sept. 9 in Bonnyville.
