St. Paul Lions host preseason jamboree

This past weekend's weather proved to be perfect for the St. Paul Lions football team as it hosted its preseason jamboree against teams from Bonnyville, Grand Centre and Ardrossan.

Coming off their second week of spring training, the Lions coaching staff took the opportunity to evaluate the team's new players as well as give the veterans a chance to show some leadership.

"We played our young guys out there and some of the guys that were backups last year," coach Todd Tanasichuk said after the jamboree. "I'm trying to see if they can step into certain roles this year.

"In that respect I wasn't necessarily impressed, but hopefully they'll get better," he continued. "We need more depth when we go into the main season."

St. Paul played three games during the jamboree with players on both the offense and defense side of the ball seeing considerable playing time on a hot Saturday morning and afternoon.

"We came out a little sluggish against Bonnyville on the offensive side," the coach said. "In our second game against Grand Centre, we played with a lot of intensity. Our guys played really well that game.

"We came out very flat in the last game, but that's to be expected," he added.

The younger players who graduated from the St. Paul Bantam Bengals program last year need to show more mental toughness if they want to make an impression, Tanasichuk said.

"When things start going bad, they can get negative," he explained. "They've got to learn that anything can happen on the next play. I think they're carrying a bit of baggage from last year since they had a tough season. They need to show more leadership."

Aside from emphasizing the need for players, especially last year's backups, to step up their game and know what they have to do before walking onto the field, the coach was pleased to see the returning starters show some confidence.

"I thought our quarterback showed a lot of gumption today," he said. "He ran the ball hard and played a lot of football. Our starting offensive line played well all day."

The coach was also impressed with the starting defensive line that hardly allowed any scores and made sure the opposing offense had to fight to gain any yards.

Throughout the day, a sizeable crowd gathered in the stands to watch the football games, which turned out to be beneficial for the home side.

"There was a really good crowd. It was nice to get a little cheering," he said. "It was a good day for football compared to Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought we might be playing in the mud out here."

The Lions continue their spring training this week and potentially have an exhibition game lined up for this Friday. Check the St. Paul Journal website, Twitter or Facebook page for any updates.