There are a lot of new faces around the dressing room this year, as the football season gets underway for the Lacombe Composite High School Rams who play in the Central Alberta High School Football League.
The Rams lost their opening tilt of the season 20-0 last Thursday against Thurber.
Head Coach Garner Kolybaba says on a roster of 49 players, about 28 of them are new to the team, either new to football or graduated from the Bantam Raiders.
"We've got some really good kids," said Kolybaba. "We always have great kids in Lacombe. They work hard but we don't have a lot of experience. We're a pretty young team."
Kolybaba notes the team has taken some great steps since fall camp started a couple of weeks ago.
"The biggest thing is experience. Some of our guys are quite young and maybe have never played before and they just have to get used to 'what is football?'. You have different systems, you have maybe different fundamentals from different sports and then even for the young guys that are moving up from Lacombe Minor, those fundamentals, they're essentially the same but now the game is also faster."
The head coach says they'll be solid at quarterback this year with starter Joe Lamoureux returning for his Grade 12 year. Lamoureux has taking part in football camps and played some spring ball with the Battle River Shock. Grade 11 student Colton Thomas will serve as back-up having recently relocated to Lacombe from Saskatchewan.
Last year Lacombe finished the season with a 4-2 regular season record, before eventually falling to Hunting Hills in the league semi-final.
"I think our biggest challenge as far as our team goes is ourselves," added Kolybaba. "We are a great physical team, athletic team, we just need that experience and sort of get that game sense. We need to get that from not just our veterans but now we need all our first years."
The Lacombe Rams will play their home opener against Stettler on Friday, September 10 starting at MEGlobal Athletic Park starting at 6 p.m.