WESTLOCK – The Westlock Thunderbirds won their home opener Sept. 26 with a decisive 51-14 victory against the visiting Vermillion Mauraders (JR Robson School).
“I don’t know if the score really told the whole story. It looks like we won handily, but it certainly felt a lot closer than the score indicated,” said Thunderbirds head coach Jared DeJong.
“I thought we played the way that we really want to play — we want to possess the ball, we want to control the ball, we want to use up the clock and wear the other team’s offence down.”
He noted the full effort by the entire team, particularly the T-Birds special teams, that helped make a difference in the game.
“I thought everything kind of came together. Our special teams did really well and our defence played great and our offence was really, really consistent, really solid,” he said.
“Overall, I was really happy with how everybody played on all those aspects of the game.”
Returning to the Alberta 6-A-Side Football League as a Tier 2 team, the T-Birds have had a great start to the regular season, winning their first three games to go 3-0 for the first time in team history. Part of that success this season can be attributed to the number of returning veterans this year, noted DeJong.
“Almost half of our team is in Grade 12 so that certainly does lend itself to some success. The majority of those guys we’ve had since they were in Grade 9 or 10,” he said, noting there are about 25 players on the Thunderbirds this season in Grades 9-12.
“A lot of these guys have played a lot of football and a lot of six-aside football … so they understand the game, they understand what we’re trying to do so we definitely are experienced, especially this year.”
That veteran experience helped the T-Birds secure wins in their first two games of the season against Camrose (49-28) and Slave Lake (76-12).
“This year, I feel like we’ve really taken another step having those veterans, those Grade 12 (players),” said DeJong, noting other factors that are contributing to the team’s success on the field. “I think a large part of it has been working and developing our junior high program in the spring … that’s really what’s going to help us maintain and sustain any success that we’re having right now.”
The Westlock Thunderbirds’ next home game on Oct. 3 is an exhibition game, with kick-off at 4 p.m. while their next regular season home game is their annual Friday Night Lights on Oct. 11. Kick-off is 7 p.m.
