It will be a cross-border clash this Saturday as Winnipeg’s East Side Eagles suit up for a practice game against Duluth’s St. Scholastica Saints.
The fall season might still be far off, but football fans in the city of Winnipeg will be getting an advance taste of pigskin on Saturday, May 18th as the Winnipeg’s East Side Eagles Senior Team take on the St. Scholastica Saints of Duluth, Minnesota. This cross-border clash is part of the teams’ round of Spring Practices, and marks only the second time in the 101 year history of the College of Saint Scholastica that the Saints football team will play in Canada.
The Saints’ last trip to the north in the spring of 2010 also found them in Winnipeg during that year’s Can-Am Bowl, taking on the Football Manitoba All-Stars at Blue Bomber Stadium. That time out the Saints crushed Manitoba’s best 31 to 9. For the Saints, this game provides the team with a rare opportunity for a padded practice, but for the Canadians the game will might a little more.
Eagles president Ian Brown says, “The 2010 game has not been an item of discussion. That was a Major League All Star team and this game will be a new experience. The Senior Team is upbeat and intends to have some fun.”
While the Eagles are proclaiming their laid back, it is easy to speculate that this time around Manitoba’s football community is aiming to get some of their own back against the formidable St. Scholastica team.
“We expect St. Scholastica to be very well prepared and in full game condition,” Brown says. Brown, however, stresses, “The outcome should be secondary to the overall experience.”
The East Side Eagles Football Club was founded back in 1972, forming out of the Chalmers Community Football Club. From those humble beginnings, starting out with a single Bantam team, the Eagles currently have six teams covering a wide spread of player ages, while their facility is the newest and most advanced artificial turf football field in Manitoba.
As a result, the Eagles’ club field is utilized by the Manitoba Minor Football Association, the Winnipeg High School Football League, and Football Manitoba, among many other Manitoba football organizations throughout Manitoba’s long winter. Due to the help the Eagles’ field has provided in nourishing the soul of football in the heart of the prairies, the East Side Eagles will be playing not just for themselves, but on behalf of all the talented Manitoban teams that have taken to their field.
(Max Olesen’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/WritingOlesen)
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