With just five days to go before the Moose Jaw High School Football season kicks off, we're taking a look at one of the new teams joining the league this year, the Weyburn Eagles.

The Eagles decided to make the move to the Moose Jaw League from the Regina Intercollegiate Football League in the spring.  After spending 36 years in Regina, Weyburn head coach Darren Abell says the move just felt like the right thing for their program.

"We're really excited about the move into Moose Jaw," explained Abell.  "We'd been in the Regina league for over 35 years and it was a really good league and we had quite a bit of success there, but I think just financially, it made better sense for us to move to Moose Jaw.  I think we're going to be treated more as equal partners in the league."

The Eagles won seven league titles during their time in the Regina league, including four straight from 2006-09.  Last year was a struggle though for Weyburn as they went 1-6 and missed the playoffs.  Abell says they were a young team last season, "We started a lot of Grade 10s and 11s, we didn't have a very big Grade 12 crew, so we struggled, but we gained a lot of experience for our kids.  I'm expecting better things this year."

There will be some challenges for the Eagles coming into the season in a new league, but Abell doesn't feel they will be too big to overcome, "Usually the first game, whether we were in the Regina league or here, you're going in kind of blind because you don't know what they've set in as far as offensive and defensive strategies, so you just go in hoping for the best.

"We don't have film on anyone, but we'll get film (as the season goes) and kind of get an idea of what they do."

The Eagles will be led by two solid linebackers coming into the season, "Probably the kid to watch out for the most is Logan Lazurko, he's a linebacker and plays some offensive line for us as well, he made the Under-18 Team Sask, so he's a very good player.  Bryce McMillian is our running back and linebacker, and he'll be counted on this year as well."

Their offence was very run-oriented last season, but Abell is hoping to see more balance this year with Kirk Winter entering his second season as the team's quarterback, "We're still trying to digest my offensive coordinator, Jody Kerr's new offence, but Kirk has vastly improved as a quarterback in terms of throwing the ball, so I don't think we'll be as one dimensional as we were last year."

Weyburn opens the season on the road against their new rivals, the Estevan Elecs, on Saturday.  Abell says he's looking forward to building a rivalry between the two school.

"There's a natural rivalry between the two cities, whether it's through hockey, or baseball, or basketball, but it's been a long time since we played football against them.  I think it's going to be a lot of fun and hopefully we get a great crowd of, not just Estevan supporters, but Weyburn supporters down in Estevan to open the season."

Weyburn head coach Darren Abell preview his season with Marc Smith

HS Football Preview:
Big Changes To MJHSFL
SC Colts Improving
Coaching Change In Estevan