The U18 Kinettes Viragos football team began their season over the weekend, taking on a team in a match to get the team going. Matthew McGillivray, the head coach of the Viragos, says the trip was long but worth it.
"We drove up to Swan River, the long drive of five hours, but the girls seemed to enjoy it. They enjoy the bus and band trips, so they enjoyed the time bonding with each other there."
"Then we had a gorgeous day, almost perfect weather for a game, and we ended up losing to Swan River 64-30, but like I said, we had a good game and there were several positives along with that. We scored 30 points and had about 300 yards in total offence. Our special teams was improved from last year, and a couple of other things were improved as well."
McGillivray says that while overall the team didn't win, they still came away from the match with plenty of hope for the season.
The team had a great level of perseverance throughout the game, which McGillivray hopes they carry into the rest of the season.
"We definitely didn't give up. We fought hard right to the end. We were driving down right until the last whistle, when we actually got down to the one-yard line at the last second. So like I said, even though we were down, we never gave up, which is good to see. Good to see the grit and fight from the girls there. That's the main thing."
Individual players also gave strong efforts, with offensive and defensive players playing well over the game.
McGillivray will be taking those performances and will hope to shape them through practice before their next match.
"A lot of positives, a lot of stuff we can build upon. A lot of that stuff was just small stuff, like tackling or pursuit angles, that we can work on. But like I said, the defence did well. We caused a couple of fumbles as well, and just still recovered them. So like I said, all around, there were definitely some big positives. Just got to work out a few small things, and we'll get going and keep working on that."
The Viragos head to the field taking on Melville this Saturday, while the team makes their home debut on September 14th, taking on Yorkton.