JV Sabercats preparing for new season

As the program prepares for life in the Ontario Football Conference, the Sault Sabercats junior varsity team saw game action for the first time this summer on Saturday afternoon.

The JV team dropped a 39-22 decision to the Thunder Bay Knights Saturday at Superior Heights in a contest that was used for the experience factor as opposed to the result.

“We rotated really early,” JV Sabercats Coach Steve Nott said. “We were using it more as a gauge to see what we have. We used everybody early on and rotated. We did some really good stuff when we had our starters in but we made a lot of mistakes.”

Nott said the mistakes came as a by-product of the team using all of the 54 players dressed for the contest, some of whom have not played at the Sabercats level before.

“With the way the weather has been, we haven’t had a lot of full-contact, outdoor practices where we can really test the guys,” Nott said. “This is the first time they’ve been able to hit so it was important to get them out there and get video on them. We can go back and (make adjustments).”

Nott said the game provided an opportunity to learn the systems being implemented during practice.

“We didn’t block and tackle as well as we would have liked,” Nott said. “There were a lot of mistakes where a lot of guys were unsure of where to go. With the kind of offence and defence we run, they’re very advanced as far as how many plays and the systems. With limited practices this time of year, getting a game in this early, we focused a lot on getting everything installed. Now it will be about rewinding and making sure everyone understands all of the plays and working on some of the techniques that were poor during the game.”

Nott would say that the numbers for the team are a positive for the development of the program going forward at the JV and Varsity levels.

“It’s huge for the program to have that many players,” Nott said. “We’re still trying to rebuild at the varsity level. Last year they were in the low 30’s and now they’re up to about 40 players. To have that flowing back to the program and to have some depth and some guys even just at practice. When you have 30 guys, it’s tough to have a practice because you’re always going to be missing a few here and there. With 54 guys, even if you’re missing eight or nine guys, you can still get things accomplished.”

The JV Sabercats open the regular season schedule on May 27 against the Peterborough Wolverines in a 1 p.m. kickoff at Superior Heights.

The Varsity team will open the same day, also against Peterborough, in a 4 p.m. start at Superior Heights.