07-sabres

Steinbach Regional Secondary School head football coach Jamie Peters feels his team is ready - so all that's left is to countdown the hours, minutes and seconds until kickoff.

The Sabres will begin the 2014 Winnipeg High School Football League season on Friday at 5 p.m. at A.D. Penner Park against the Churchill Bulldogs.

"We're really excited about the opportunity to kickoff the season," said Peters. "The boys have been working hard. As a coach I don't think you're ever really feel prepared for the first game. You kind of go in a little bit blind. You don't really know what the other teams are running. There's no film exchange or anything like that so both teams have the same disadvantages that way. I'm sure the boys are ready."

Peters firmly believes that controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball is the key to his teams success this season as games will be won in the trenches.

"We want to make sure we're moving the ball, having a strong run game and our defense is able to contain Churchill quarterback Will Reimer. He's very mobile and athletic so we're going to have to make sure we key on him and take away that part of their game."

A win in week one would be huge for the Sabres who will play their next three games on the road against Kildonan East, Kelvin and Miles Macdonell.

Year five - simply amazing for a football program that failed to win a game in seasons one & two, captured an Andy Currie Division lll championship in 2012 and then got promoted to the Kas Vidruk Division ll last year.

"It's kind of crazy when you think about," Peters said. "Time flies and we're just excited to continue to build the program."

"We're at a point now where I thought we could have been two or three years ago - in terms of being a perennial middle of the pack to top of the division team. I'm just excited to go out there and compete and try to chase this Division ll championship."