It's a special day for the Shaunavon Shadows as they play their nine-man high school football home opener during a day of festivities.
They're anticipating a big crowd connected with The Big Kick $25,000 contest, a special Golden West Broadcasting announcement, and a concert from Josh Stumpf.
"I think we're expecting a record crowd," said Shadows Head Coach Aaron Audette. "Kids on the team are really pumped up for it."
You can hear today's game with Local Sports Live on Country 94.1 FM and CJSN 1490 at 3:30 pm.
Shaunavon started the season with a 52-42 win last week in Fort Qu'Appelle last week.
"We're a younger team," Audette said. "Offense looked really good. We've got a lot of young guys that haven't had a ton of game experience, but I really feel like they've grown and improved a lot over the last couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to competitive games each week. I think that's one thing our conference is going to have this year is every single team is going to be a tough test and they're going to be competitive games.
"I think we'll really find out what we're made of facing Lumsden, who is usually the top team. I think we're up to the challenge."
He sees the strength of his team coming in the trenches.
"We lost a three-year starter at quarterback in Kaleb Little from last year," Audette noted. "This year, we're with a new quarterback who's played well. The strength of our team is probably on the line offensively and defensively. We've got a strong running back this year in the grade 12, Cash Lewans. We're maybe a little bit more of a run-heavy team offensively and a run-stopping team defensively."
It could be a clash of styles as Lumsden brings speed and skill to the field.
"Anytime you go in to play Lumsden, they play hard, they play fast, and they execute," Audette said. "It doesn't look like they have a ton of size this year, which may be a little bit different from the last couple of years, but still looks like they're firing hard right there.
"We're game planning for them, but at the same time, we're hoping to play our game and have some success pounding it out and using our strength and size on the line of scrimmage."
We are giving someone a chance to take to the field and potentially kick their way to $25,000 with our Big Kick contest.
Golden West Broadcasting will also be making a special announcement at the game, and rising Canadian country star Josh Stumpf will be performing a post-game concert.