By Robb Fenton
The regular season is still two months away, but the Lloydminster Rotary Chargers and the Lloydminster Musgrave Mustangs were able to close out their spring training with an exhibition game, Saturday afternoon at St. Mary’s School.
Having two local teams in the Border City is a big plus and both teams were able to utilize each other to better prepare for the upcoming 2010 Wheatland Bantam Football Season.
“Well, it’s good that we have the chance to play this team. We had the two teams in Lloyd, so it’s good we have a game at the end of spring so we can evaluate the kids and see how well they’ve done in their positions over the last two weeks of practices,” Mustangs coach Darren Pawsey said.
Chargers head coach Cole Payne echoed Pawsey’s comments, noting how important the game is for learning and development and how nice it is having two teams that don’t have to travel to play a game.
“It’s huge to have this game. It’s a nice luxury to have two bantam teams so we don’t have to worry about the travel costs and stuff like that. To have this game, it’s huge for both teams,” Payne said.
Both coaches were pleased with what they saw from their teams. Payne was particularly pleased with how his team improved their execution and when the coaches called a play, the team was able to run the play with success.
“I thought we did a pretty good job. We ran about six different plays and by the end of the game the boys were executing them better than at the start, so (for) us as a coaching staff, we’re very pleased with the way the kids played,” Payne said.
For Pawsey and the Mustangs, they know the final results don’t mean anything, but overall they were happy with what they saw and happy with the way the team is looking at this point in the year.
“It’s looking good. Obviously we have some work to do after the game, but it’s looking good,” Pawsey said. “There’s a lot of first year kids that were out there playing positions that they either haven’t played before or are inexperienced in and they did great, so I’m proud of all of them,” he said.
Both coaches agreed that the game is going to make them better in the long run and they are both hoping to meet in the league finals in the fall.
“It’s both teams getting out here and learning the basics of football again,” Payne said.
“Hopefully we’ll get to meet them in the finals,” Pawsey said.