Skip to content

Elks Touch Football League gets new equipment

The players of the North Battleford Elks Touch Football League will be taking to the field in style this season. Thanks to a sizeable donation of $7,500 from the local Elks Lodge, the league now has new equipment for the 2016 campaign.
Elks Football
Zonie Krawchuk of the Elks Lodge, left, shook hands with Timothy Blum after the North Battleford Elks Touch Football received new equipment for the 2016 season. Photo By Lucas Punkari.

The players of the North Battleford Elks Touch Football League will be taking to the field in style this season.

Thanks to a sizeable donation of $7,500 from the local Elks Lodge, the league now has new equipment for the 2016 campaign.

“It really came about in the last year when they reached out to us,” League Commissioner Tyson Blum said. “A number of the Elks members have grandkids that are playing in the league and they said to us ‘Well our names are on the jerseys but we can’t remember the last time we gave you any money to help you guys out.’

“As it turned out, it happened to be 15 years ago so they generously gave us a check with 500 dollars from each year that they missed. We went to Nutec (Embroidery) and we were able to upgrade everything.”

The most notable different is with the jerseys themselves, as they are now proper football uniforms.

“The old jerseys were basically what you would see in youth hockey and that’s not very good for football at all,” Blum said. “They weren’t breathable and they were getting really worn out.

“Thankfully my wife was graciously sewing up jerseys but we were getting to a point where they weren’t going to be lasting much longer.”

In addition the new jerseys, the league will also have new equipments bags, football and beanbags that will be used to marked the yardage on the field.

“We pretty much replaced everything and that’s what I wanted to do,” Blum said.

“This will be my last year involved with the league as my son is going through the age group. I wanted to leave everything in perfect shape for the next person who runs the league.”

Registration for the 2016 season, which will begin on Sept. 10, will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Don Ross Centre.

“We’ll have two divisions once again for ages 7-9 and 10-12,” Blum said.

“We had some interest in lowering the age of entry to six years of age, but when I lined up a six-year-old next to an eight-year-old the size difference is something I didn’t want to have out on the field, even though we are a touch league.”

For more information on the league or to volunteer as a coach, contact Blun at 306-441-1945.