The U18 Viragos are gearing up for their season opener as they travel to Melville this weekend to face the Vipers. With a roster brimming with new talent and a determined mindset, the Viragos are eager to prove themselves in their first game of the season.
Head coach of the Viragos Mark Tribiger noted that this is not the first time that the Viragos have faced the Vipers.
“They’ve been in our league, and they have usually been middle-of-the-pack kind of team, but they lost their starting quarterback this year, who was the quarterback for Team Saskatchewan,” said Tribiger. He's hoping this will be beneficial to the team heading into that first game.
The team has been hard at work with a lot of new faces joining the team this year. “We only have two grade twelves on the team this year. So we’re basically made-up of grade 9’s and 10’s this season.”
As the relatively new team heads into the first game, there is a mix of emotions. "We've got our veteran players that are a little more excited and you got the younger ones who are a little more nervous. You can tell because they've never played in actual game action and but I mean there's nerves there for everybody, even the coaches get the nerves before the first regular season game."
However, he said that they have been putting in the work and are looking forward to seeing what they can do.
“We've seen a lot of improvement. Some of the players who were a little bit meeker at the beginning of the season here have really come around and are going to be a force on our defence,” said Tribiger. “Some of our offensive players, the same thing they've shown some good talent in the positions we have them in, and they should really give Melville a good run."
Heading into the game, Tribiger said he is hoping to see a good physical game, with the team getting points on the board and, ideally, coming away with a win.
As the Viragos team is made up of a lot of newer players, he said they opted out of a preseason scrimmage, meaning this will be the first game for the players.
“We had some offers to scrimmage. But we felt with our lower numbers and playing the six a side game, we were going to just focus on our own team right now and go from there."
He noted that the first game of the season is a great way to see how the team is shaping up.
"With our league only having the four teams in it, every game is a huge game for us. But this first game, it'll set the tone and let us know where we're where we're stacking up in the league."
"We're going to be happy to get our first game under our belts here this season and we're going to be looking to make that 3-hour drive home a little easier with the win."
The Viragos home opener takes place next Saturday, September 13, when they take on the Moosomin Generals.