A new year and a new team.The Lanigan Central High School (LCHS) is fielding a six-man football team this season. According to coach Jay Fitzsimmons, a lot of students expressed interest in starting a team last year, so he worked on getting one going. "We just needed a lot of money," he laughed. With that in mind, Fitzsimmons approached local businesses and organizations for donations to fund the purchase of equipment.Everyone from PotashCorp to BHP to the Lions and the Kinsmen donated funds towards setting up the program, he noted.Once he had the equipment, he set up practices this summer."We had our first practice sessions August 18-19," Fitzsimmons said. "We didn't go every day after that, but we had more sessions."Fitzsimmons even organized an exhibition game against Ituna on August 27."We needed to test our game," he said. "They started to learn what football is about. It's one thing to play against your buddies on the field and another thing to play against someone who's willing to run right through you."This isn't the first time Fitzsimmons has been through putting a team together. He organized the Ituna program when he was there two years ago.When Fitzsimmons was organizing the Lanigan team, he had 24 students who said they were interested. Once the practices started and word spread, he ended up with 39 players.While he's happy about the numbers, Fitzsimmons is running into an equipment shortage as he only bought enough for 30 players.The team practices every morning from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m."We haven't had any kids not come yet," Fitzsimmons noted. "They say it sounds worse than actually doing it."He chose morning practices because most of the other sports run right after school and he didn't want to interfere with them.With one game already under their belt, the Lazers are optimistic about the season, Fitzsimmons said."The kids want to win every game," he said. "I'm just hoping they learn the game and that we can get a win or two. If we make the top four (in the league), I'd be thrilled."The Lanigan Lazers are playing in Conference 3 in the Six-Man League against Clavet, Hanley, Aberdeen, Caronport, and Watrous. Their first game on the schedule is an exhibition game in Watrous against the Wildcats on September 10.They play five games in the regular season starting with a home game against the Hanley Sabres on September 17.They also play in Lanigan on September 24, before heading to Caronport for a game on October 1.Their last home game of the regular season is on October 7 against the Aberdeen Crusaders. Lanigan closes out the season with a visit to Clavet on October 15.
