The Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute Tigers are starting to prepare for their upcoming football season, and head coach Michael Davids is excited to get the new talent out on the field.
"There is a real talented core of young kids coming in to Grade 10 this year," said Davids. "We are expecting new personnel in every area, offence and defence."
Last season the Tigers went without a single win in the Rural Manitoba Football League, finishing 0-8, but this year Davids hopes to change that.
"We're changing our strategy up a bit, previous years we played a more straight-up, smash mouth game, using three running backs part of the time," said Davids. "But this year we are hoping to try more of a spread offense to move the ball around more."
Currently the coaching staff includes Evan Asselstein, Brian Elgert, Patrick Grover, Dale Swanton and Jodi Ginter, with a high profile addition coming aboard this year. "Marshall Quelch will be joining the coaching staff this year," said Davids. "He's a great man with years of coaching experience and experience working with kids, we're really excited to have him help out."
Davids expects roughly a dozen returning players this year, with another dozen or so coming in fresh. Unfortunately, there is some speculation on whether or not last years quarterback will return.
"We aren't 100 per cent sure on the returning status of some of our guys," said Davids. "But we know there will be some major competition at quarterback and on the offensive line. We also expect at least three new starters on each side of the ball."
As many Tigers fans already know, the NACI team holds a fierce rivalry with the Parkwest team based in Shoal Lake after losing a 10 point lead to them once last year, and then falling short again in the Rural 9-Man Challenge held in Canad Stadium in Winnipeg.
"We want to improve on our record from last year as much as we can," said Davids. "But if there is only one game we win, lets hope it's against Parkwest."