Red Deer Minor Football (RDMF) is doing its part to ensure young women in Alberta have opportunities to play football.
Beginning this spring the local organization will launch the area’s first U18 female spring football club, the Central Alberta Fire.
Registration, which has already been open since February, will close on March 27. If interested, RDMF encourages all girls aged 14-17 to sign up to play full-contact six-person football. Each player will have to pay $240 to play for the season and all equipment will be provided.
RDMF vice president Devon Mappin said after interest from parents and players from around the area they thought it would be a great program to bring to central Alberta.
Some girls he said were driving down to Airdrie to play in the spring so it seemed like a no-brainer to add a team here for local athletes.
“There has been a lot of interest in the past for a lot of girls to play,” he said.
“At the high school level, a lot of them will finish up around that time so it just offers them another place where they can compete against each other.”
This season the squad will play their regular season games out of Red Deer at Setters Place with kickoff on April 29. Practices will begin indoors in April and the Fire will host four regular season games before going to playoffs in Calgary in June.
Since the Fire will play in the south division, they will play against teams in Calgary, Okotoks, and Airdrie.
Those who want to play for the team can come from anywhere in central Alberta from Ponoka to Olds and Stettler to Rocky Mountain House. To register, those interested can register on Red Deer Minor Football’s website
“There has been some positive interest. I know I’ve talked to some of the other high schools around here in Red Deer and there’s still a few we anticipate to sign up,” he said.
“We wanted to provide another option for them this spring and still go back and play high school in the fall.”
They’re also still in the process of hiring a coaching staff. They’re considering a few candidates and whoever they hire will have minor football experience in central Alberta. They are also pushing to get as many female coaches on the staff as possible.