Peacock head coach Blake Buettner looks on during practice at Memorial Field.

After having a bye in the opening week, the Peacock Tornadoes kick off their season this afternoon at Gutheridge Field against the Estevan Elecs in High School Football action.

Peacock head coach Blake Buettner says his team is ready to get the season underway, "We had the bye, so it's giving us a little extra time to practice and get some exhibition games in, so that's good.  I think we're prepared.

"Enthusiasm has been good and the leadership and all the things that you want out of your older guys.  Our younger guys are enthusiastic and learning.  They had a chance to play in a jamboree up in Prince Albert, so they're excited about football, so we just want to work on improving."

The Tornadoes are going to be a young team again this year, but Buettner says he likes the skill he's seeing out of a number of players, including two new guys in his backfield.

"We moved Austin Abbott into the backfield and we've got a new fullback, so that's been a situation where we've had to work on having two new guys.  We've been working on timing and just the whole understanding of the process, but we're happy with the progress.  They're eager, they're going to make some mistakes, but they're good athletes and I'm anxious to see how they're going to improve throughout the season."

The Elecs are coming in off a 36-8 loss to the Weyburn Eagles in the opening game of the season and should be hungry as they look to bounce back.  Buettner says they're expecting a fight out of Estevan, "From what we've seen on film, they're a big team and they've got some athletes.  Sometimes it's just finding things that work for you in that first game and making some changes, so they're going to be good."

There's two other games happening on Thursday in two different cities, as Central heads to Weyburn and Vanier is in Swift Current.  All the games kick off at 4:30pm.