Saskatchewan’s future football talent will have a chance to strut their stuff in Saskatoon and Regina this week as Football Saskatchewan hosts identification camps in both cities.
These camps, open to athletes in grade 9-11, provide skill instruction to players ranging in talent from nondescript to elite. The intent is to provide each player with “a base level of skill,” according to Football Saskatchewan executive director Jeff Yausie.
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“We’re trying to identify them when they’re in Grade 10 or 11 and say, ‘In two or three years if you want to chose football and you work hard at it . . . you can go play,” said Yausie.
The camp in Saskatoon consists of roughly 140-150 participants, while Regina features nearly 80.
While some players may have already been pegged as potential studs in the sport, the identification camps help unearth hidden gems or late-developing athletes.
Yausie cites, among others, former University of Saskatchewan Huskies linebacker Taylor Wallace as a beneficiary of one these camps. Yausie remembers seeing Wallace at an identification camp in Unity many years ago and, after an impressive showing, Wallace translated his exposure and work ethic into a university football career and a tryout with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“One of the great things we have going in football is that we’re a late maturing sport,” said Yausie. “We’re not identifying kids when they’re eight, nine or 10. Lots of these kids are good athletes, they’ve played other sports or they’re really big and they’re not going to thrive in other sports.
“It gives the kids a chance to put their name on the radar.”
The camps opened on Monday and close on Friday with closed scrimmages. Players receive on-field technical instruction pertaining to their position, as well as in-class tutorials during the evening sessions.
The top 90 participants drawn from these two camps, as well camps in Moose Jaw, Outlook, Yorkton, Unity, Melfort and Swift Current, are invited to the Roughrider Bowl on the weekend of June 12, a camp which focuses more on the development of elite players.
Saskatoon’s practice sessions go from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday at Griffiths Stadium and Ron Atchison Field. The closed scrimmage starts at 7 p.m. on Friday at Griffiths stadium.
Regina’s camp takes place at Mosaic stadium with practice sessions from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. The closed scrimmage goes at 5 p.m. Friday.
By Jordan Hartshorn,
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