Registration is over.

Equipment fitting is done.

And now the countdown starts.

The Eastman Raiders football club will begin its 27th season in early August.

94 players have registered for the upcoming season including 19 in the Crunchers 7 & 8 age group.

"It's great news," said Raiders president Sean Walsh. "I think only two or three kids that are actually on the Crunchers team are returning players. The remainder are all brand new kids so that's awesome for the sport. Before the registration we reached out to all the rural areas and tried to bring in kids and it certainly paid off because right now he have a healthy number with the Crunchers."

23 players have registered for the Atom 9 & 10 age group.

29 players will play in the Pee Wee 11 & 12 age group and 23 players have registered for the Bantam division which consists of players who are 13 & 14 years of age.

The Bantam age group was of a concern for Walsh because of the junior varsity football team that will begin play this fall at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School.

"We reached outside of Steinbach a little bit more than we normally would," Walsh said. "We also got help from SRSS football coach Jamie Peters. The Sabres program definitely helped us. He worked with us to make sure that we were still able to get enough kids on the field so that benefited us as well. That was greatly appreciated. It was more just hard work by everybody with the advertising. In Winnipeg a lot of the teams are suffering both at the Pee Wee and Bantam level."

The Raiders teams started practice sessions in June and will continue this month.

The 2017 Manitoba Minor Football Association season begins after the August long weekend.