Spring marks changes to Nova Scotia football landscape (SCHEDULE)

Things will look a little different on the Nova Scotia football scene this spring.

One of the significant changes that has taken place is that the Nova Scotia Varsity Football League (NSVFL) has been replaced with the Nova Scotia Indoor Spring League.  Football Nova Scotia has spent several months organizing and developing this new league.

As for the league, it will have two divisions.  The junior division will be comprised players who are 14-15 years of age. Overall, there will be three teams competing in this division.  Meanwhile, the midget division is for players that fall in the 16 to 17 age category. Five teams will compete in the midget division.  Games will begin this weekend and the league wraps up in mid-May. All games for both divisions will be played on Saturdays (with the exception of this upcoming weekend) at East Hants Sportsplex (1076 Highway 2, Lantz, Nova Scotia).

COMPLETE NOVA SCOTIA INDOOR SPRING LEAGUE SCHEDULE:

Date	Warm Up	Game Time	League	Field Name	Home Team	AwayTeam
Sun 04/07/2013	2:00 PM	2:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Halifax	Valley
Sun 04/07/2013	5:30 PM	6:00 PM	Midget	East Hants	Dartmouth	Timberlea
Sun   04/07/2013					Bedford	Bye
Sat 04/13/2013	8:30 PM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Timberlea	Truro
Sat   04/13/2013	9:30 PM	10:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Dartmouth	Truro
Sat 04/13/2013	10:30 PM	11:00 AM	Midget	East Hants	Timberlea	Bedford
Sat 04/13/2013	2:00 PM	2:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Valley	Dartmouth
Sat   04/13/2013					Halifax	Bye
Sat 04/20/2013	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Timberlea	Dartmouth
Sat   04/20/2013	9:30 AM	10:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Truro	Timberlea
Sat   04/20/2013	10:30 AM	11:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Truro	Dartmouth
Sat 04/20/2013	11:30 AM	12:00 PM	Midget	East Hants	Timberlea	Valley
Sat 04/20/2013	3:00 PM	3:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Bedford	Halifax
Sat   04/20/2013					Dartmouth	Bye
Sat 04/27/2013	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Truro	Dartmouth
Sat   04/27/2013	9:30 AM	10:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Dartmouth	Timberlea
Sat 04/27/2013	10:30 AM	11:00 AM	Midget	East Hants	Halifax	Timberlea
Sat 04/27/2013	2:00 PM	2:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Bedford	Dartmouth
Sat   04/27/2013					Valley	Bye
Sat 05/04/2013	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Timberlea	Truro
Sat   05/04/2013	9:30 AM	10:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Dartmouth	Truro
Sat   05/04/2013	10:30 AM	11:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Dartmouth	Timberlea
Sat 05/04/2013	11:30 AM	12:00 PM	Midget	East Hants	Dartmouth	Halifax
Sat 05/04/2013	3:00 PM	3:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Valley	Bedford
Sat   05/04/2013					Timberlea	Bye
Date	Warm Up	Game Time	League	Field Name	Home Team	AwayTeam
Sat 05/11/2013	7:00 PM	7:30 PM	Midget	East Hants	Semi Finals	1 vs 4
Sun   05/12/2013	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Timberlea	Dartmouth
Sun   05/12/2013	9:30 AM	10:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Truro	Timberlea
Sun 05/12/2013	10:30 AM	11:00 AM	Midget	East Hants	Semi Finals	2 vs 3
Sat 05/18/2013	8:30 AM	9:00 AM	Junior	East Hants	Finals
Sat 05/18/2013	9:30 AM	10:30 AM	Midget	East Hants	Finals

“The idea of the league is to be a skills development league where there is no blitzing, no complicated systems and offences have to run balanced attacks with no motion,” explained Chris Valardo, Vice President of High Performance for Football Nova Scotia. “The whole idea was to not have the provincial teams and the Spring League compete for players and coaches.”

In each division of the Indoor Spring League, there will be different game formats.

“The junior division is 10 man football and will play a shootout format where they will play 25 minute halfs from the 35 yard line in with no kicking or special teams,” commented Valardo.  “The Midget league is full 12-man Canadian rules football.”

“There will be three downs, all special teams and full 15 minute quarters.”

Last Saturday, the league held a pre-season jamboree.

“Our pre-season jamboree is where each teams’ offense and defense played each other,” added Valardo.  “We had approximately 225 kids ranging in age from 14 to 17 playing football inside.”

“It was truly impressive!”

For some players in these division, this will be an opportunity to showcase their talents in the hopes of meriting consideration for either the provincial under-16 or under-18 team.

“On May 25, we will hold the last tryout for the provincial teams,” explained Valardo. “We are also going to scout the Indoor League for the next eight weeks to see if we can identify players for our elite program.”

“We currently have approximately 150 athletes competing for 80 spots of the two provincial teams.  We are very excited about both our teams this year as we feel the level of competition has increased significantly over recent years and with the introduction of the new indoor midget league, it will only make for a better outcome for our provincial elite teams. We are also very excited to see some of the exceptional coaches that have come out this year to coach in our programs, some of these coaches are new to our programs and some our returning after a few years absence.”

Another new program will be launching this spring.  Football Nova Scotia will begin a Spring Six Aside League for under-11 and under-13 players.  The goal of this program is to introduce young kids and their parents to contact football. This program has been created by Football Nova Scotia Executive Director Karen Ouellette and Vice President of Sport Development Keith Skiffington in partnership with Saint Mary’s Huskies Football, Football Canada and Support 4 Sport.

With all the new changes to the spring leagues as well as provincial under-16 and under-18 programs, Football Nova Scotia is not only excited, but hopeful that all goals will be achieved and objectives met.

“This is the first year of our new format and we are very excited about both the new indoor league and our provincial team program,” expressed Valardo.  “Football in Nova Scotia has experienced tremendous growth in recent years at the minor, high school, provincial teams and now the new indoor league.”

“It is all part of a long term athletic development program designed to increase skills, both for players and coaches. The ultimate goal is to get more kids playing football at all levels and ages as well as developing our elite football players.”

(NOTE: Tomorrow, CFC will post the Nova Scotia Spring Indoor League Midget Preview)

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