Raiders’ camps hoping to attract new blood

The Chateauguay Raiders football team will be holding a winter camp at the Beau-Chateau Sportsplex once again this year, to help kids get ready in advance of the next football season.

The winter camp will start on February 16, and will last 10 weeks, taking place once a week on Sundays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Signups for the camp will be held in-person on January 22 and 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Laberge Park in Chateauguay. Only cash payments will be accepted for winter camp registration.

“There’s going to be coaches from every single position, from every single age group, and there’s going to be different stations. These stations are going to be for each position and have different drills to teach you different techniques for those positions,” said Andrew Cormier, lines coach for the Raiders.

Cormier said that there will be opportunities for players looking to try out new positions and see if they like it or are up to playing it.

“If they don’t like that position, they have the opportunity to try a different position. We give them a look into not only how to play and the rules and the techniques of the sport if they have played before but also give them the opportunity to kind of feel comfortable in a position that they can pick themselves,” said Cormier.

The camp is open to new and returning players, with the goal of getting them in shape and ready for the start of the season.

“Some of these kids play other sports. Some will play indoor soccer; some will play hockey for the season. But what about the kids that don’t? What are they doing from November to June?” said Cormier. “This gives them something to do over the winter, get their energy out, exercise.”

The Raiders also want the camp to serve as an introduction to the sport for new players.

While Cormier is not from Kahnawake, he said that he has been trying to find ways to recruit players from the community to the team, in particular older players for the Bantam team.

He said that more kids are eligible to play for the Raiders than they might realize.

“How community sports work is that there’s zones. For example, the Chateauguay Raiders team, even though it’s based out of Chateauguay, is in a zone where multiple surrounding communities, including Kahnawake, are eligible to play for us,” said Cormier.

“Over the years, we’ve had children from Kahnawake who have played for us, but there’s times lately where parents that I know, or other coaches know, or even Kevin Wyeth the president of the Raiders knows, they come to us saying that they didn’t know their child could play for Chateauguay.”

Cormier hopes that they will be able to attract more players from town to the Raiders, and that there is definitely room for them in the association.

“We just want the kids from town to know that Chateauguay is their community ball as well. We encourage the kids from Kahnawake to come out and play for us. We want as many kids as possible,” said Cormier.

Wyeth, for his part, said that he has not yet determined a concrete strategy for recruiting players since he has taken over the presidency of the association prior to last season.

“They used to put out some stuff on Facebook, but they never really did any big recruiting, I don’t think,” said Wyeth, who said that he had to focus on other aspects of the association last year.

“I was starting from scratch, basically,” said Wyeth. “I’m learning as I go. So, I am going to have to start, like, reaching out to everyone, including in Kahnawake.”

Wyeth said that while the younger age groups have had a lot of demand for many years, this year included, the association has started to struggle with getting older players to join the Raiders. According to Wyeth, the Raiders have not had a Midget team for a few years now, and so far, have not had that much demand for Bantam either, due in part because other options have become available to players in those age groups at Howard S. Billings High School and Louis-Phillipe-Paré high school, for example, which was not the case just a few years ago.

As for the winter camp, Wyeth is hopeful they will repeat the strong attendance they have had in the last few years - many returning parents had been asking for the signup dates prior to their announcement last week, and last year they had around 150 kids who participated.

“I just hope we get a good turnout again. I hope I see a lot more new faces. I’m hoping to get some older boys, some bigger boys, so we can keep our Bantam team alive. I don’t want Bantam to die in the second year I’m in control of everything,” said Wyeth.

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