Viragos expand recruiting efforts as spring season approaches

The Estevan Viragos girl's football team is hoping to continue to grow their program as they hit the practice field this week in advance of their spring season.

Head coach Mark Tribiger said they have about 18 players signed up, and they're hoping to recruit more players from around the southeast.

"We've been out to Oxbow here last week, and it sounds like we've got about four or five players coming in from Oxbow," Tribiger said. "I've had some reach out to us from Weyburn, and it sounds like we have a couple coming down from Weyburn. And then we've been out to Stoughton, and we're planning on hitting up Lampman here in the next week or so."

He said there's been rumblings of possibly changing the name of the team to help with recruiting.

"There's talks of it right now of somewhat changing the name, just getting away from the Estevan," Tribiger said. "In talking with the girls, it's just one of those high school things right? Some people don't want to play because it's got the Estevan name on it, whereas if it were to change to southeast we might be able to recruit more."

Tribiger said his group of players could be split into two teams for this season based on changes from Football Saskatchewan.

"Prior to this we were grade 7-12 for our league, and it's looking like now we're going to have two different teams with grades 5-8 and grades 9-12. They're basically splitting us in half," Tribiger said. "They're allowing us to have a grace period this year, but we'd really like to have enough players to split into the two teams."

Tribiger said his hope is to have 20-24 players on the senior team and at least 15 on the junior team.

He added that the team has had a great off season, with player camps and coaching clinics.

"We're going to be a lot different team than we were last year, that's for sure," Tribiger said. "Just hoping the girls have a great season here. We're just recruiting players, and the more players the better chance we have at winning a league championship."

The team's first practice is this Wednesday. They'll play their first game on May 28 against Moosomin.