Archive » Sports

Orangeville Outlaws start practicing for summer football competition

April 18, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Orangeville Outlaws will be back on the gridiron this summer as full tackle football returns to Ontario.

The Outlaws haven’t fielded a team since 2019 when all football leagues in the province stopped playing due to the pandemic.

“We have Varsity and Bantam tackle football this year,” confirmed Orangeville Outlaws Club president, Sue Ellies. “We have our first outdoor practice for the two tackle teams on April 5, and will practice Tuesdays and Thursdays at the fairgrounds, from 6:00 p.m. until dusk. We are also running a flag football program for kids with 2010 to 2015 birth years. The flag players will join us on the field for Thursday practises.”

The Provincial Football League was shut down even before it started the 2020 season, which usually gets underway on the May 24 weekend.

In order to keep the kids busy, the Outlaws put together a flag football league that proved to be very popular. They played games at Orangeville Christian School and were divided into house league divisions by age.

It was so popular they ran it again last summer and made the decision to keep it going as so many kids were interested in playing.

During the current practice times, younger players on the Bantam squad were focused on learning the game as most of them have experience due to the sport’s shutdown. Older players on the varsity squad are more familiar with the game, the positions, and skills needed so their practice was a little different.

The Outlaws have had some good success on the gridiron as a Club and it is known as a well-run organization.

With home field at Westside Secondary School, the Club has a good fan base with lots of people turning out for the summer games.

The summer football season gets underway during the May long weekend and goes through to the first week of August before heading into the playoffs.

Readers Comments (0)