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Outlaws start pre-season training

March 12, 2014   ·   0 Comments

football1webBy Brian Lockhart

One advantage to having indoor turf facilities is being able to start your summer sports training before the snow even melts.

The Orangeville Outlaws Football Club have started their pre-season training program in the dome at ACTS Fitness.

Five divisions of players who will be taking part in the 2014 summer football season were going through the paces of agility training on March 3, during their first outing as a club since the winter football camp.

For the first few sessions, most players won’t even touch a football. This is more about conditioning and getting back into a football frame of mind.

“This is the first night of our pre-season warm-up,” Said Outlaws Club president TJ Bryk. “We’ll be going for six weeks inside the dome every Tuesday and Thursday night. This year we have five divisions for sure and we’re trying for a Tyke division. We have about 170 players in total and we’re trying for 200.”

The good news for the Outlaws is they have around a 90% return rate for returning players. This means the kids who played last year and have experience will again be filling the roster.

After winning the Championship last season, many Bantam players who were on that team have now graduated to the Junior Varsity level, so that may be the squad to watch this year.

The Ontario Minor Football League has expanded for the second year in a row. New teams include squads from Scarborough, Oshawa, and Newmarket, and Clarington. That means that there will be 55 teams in the League this year when you included all divisions from the 20 centres that are fielding a team.

The Orangeville squad draws players from a wide area – from Mayfield Road in the south, east to Highway 50, and as far west and north as players want to come as no towns in those areas field teams.

The football season will get underway on the May 24, long weekend.

With the latest weather reports predicting the current cold and snowy conditions to last for several more weeks, outdoor spring training may be on some soggy fields to start the season.

“It’s going to be a real messed up Spring,” Bryk said. “Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it, and we have to sit back and deal with mother nature.”

The Outlaws have had some problems in recent years gaining access to playing fields when venues were given a red-light status due to wet and soggy conditions and concerns over damage to the field.

Either way, the season will go ahead and the Outlaws are looking to repeat the success they had last year.


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