MOOSE JAW — Residents who stopped by the Yara Centre found the venue packed last weekend as the Saskatchewan Selects Football club and close to 1,000 athletes took over to host the “Battle On the Prairies” football tournament recently.
The tournament was the fourth of its kind and featured 16 teams — including the hosting Moose Jaw-based Sask. Selects — and athletes attending from as far away as Boston and California, with teams from Texas and Mexico joining for the first time this year. Around 300 of those athletes were from Saskatchewan.
“Man, it’s crazy. We have goal line cameras, and this year, for the first time, we have cameras everywhere. This is like a CFL-level production,” announced Zeljko Stefanovic, the managing director of the Select Football program in Saskatchewan.
The Moose Jaw-based tournament doesn’t mark the end of the club’s season, however. In February, around 65 teams will meet in Florida to play one final tournament during the North American Youth Football Championships.
“(The tournament here in Moose Jaw) is kind of like a mid-season tune up for Florida,” Stefanovic said. “We practice all winter and the icing on the cake… is the trip to Florida.”
The and brings together athletes from 60 Saskatchewan communities to practice every other weekend. Originally founded in 2016, Selects quickly grew from around 10 teams to its current total of 24 from all over North America.
The club began practicing for the 2024-2025 season in late October 2024, made one trip to Vegas for a tournament, and will continue until the season concludes in February.
The recent tournament brought non-stop action with 11-man football matches in back-to-back games in a fast-paced, modified format. To accommodate the large number of teams and limited ceiling height, some of the rules had to be adjusted.
One major change is the removal of kicking — so there were no kickoffs, punts or field goals. Instead, play started directly with offence versus defence. In essence, it’s football without the kicking game, but with all the intensity and structure of a traditional match.
“We don’t have the height here, right, so we can’t kick,” Stefanovic said. “So, we’ve just taken it right out and made house rules for converts and kicking. So, if you want to punt inside of your own 50, we’ll just move the ball up 30 yards and then your defence comes up and their offence comes up.”
Aside from the absence of kicking and a time adjustment — each game ran for about 75 minutes — .
“It’s quick, and there’s a lot of scoring,” Stefanovic added. “It’s very fast paced (and) you’ve got to make quick decisions because the clock is running. And I tell you, the vibe in here is crazy — music blasting, videos going, fans everywhere. They’re right up against the sides. It’s awesome.”
The club offers young athletes an excellent opportunity to get scouted with several already moving ahead in their careers after playing with the Selects.
“Last weekend we had a kid that plays on the B.C. Lions who was here at our practice (and was) one of our former players. They’re scattered all over the CFL,” Stefanovic said.
Many former Sask. Selects athletes have advanced to impressive levels in their football careers, including 31 former Select players on the U of R Rams football team, 17 former Select players on the U of S Huskies team, and “a ton” playing with the U of A Bears.
To learn more about the Saskatchewan Selects Football club visit .
The tournament has been filmed by IKS Live, a division of the IKS Media Group of Companies based out of Regina, Sask. For more information and to watch the tournament online visit .
