It shouldn't be hard for the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs football club to improve on their 2009 record.One win in 2010 would suffice.But head coach Marco Ricci's expectations of this year's squad go far above and beyond the bare minimum."I have no doubt in my mind that we'll be very competitive, and we're going to win games and we have big goals. Our goal this year is to make the playoffs and host a playoff game, and then to even host the city or provincial championship," said Ricci at Elecs practice on Monday.The Elecs took the first step to achieving those goals on Friday, kicking off training camp for their sophomore year. The team has been working hard ever since and will continue readying themselves over the next week-and-a-half in the run-up to their home opener on Sept. 2.This year's squad will field 20 players returning from the 2009 winless Elecs, with the addition of 15 newcomers who will certainly add a new look to the team."It's a nice mix, Ricci said. "Having those 20 guys who played last year is going to pay off big time for us."Even though the Elecs' returning players have that ever-important high school football experience under their belts, the new guys boast a certain amount of experience as well - most of them have come up through the ranks of Estevan Minor Football in recent years, Ricci said."A lot of them have played football before, so they're aware of the skills and some of the commitments that are needed to be successful, so we feel like we're ahead with the new kids as well."As far as strengths and weaknesses go, Ricci's not exactly naming any pitfalls yet, but he's confident that positives will outweigh any negatives."I think one of our strengths will be having that one year under our belts. Defensively, we should be fairly strong. Offensively, we have a diverse group, we're going to move the ball around a little bit with a bunch of different guys touching it. I think that's kind of exciting. Plus, we have a real good commitment from most of the guys."The Elecs continue training camp all this week, taking the weekend off, and then returning to the practice field on Monday in advance of Thursday's opening night tilt against Moose Jaw's Central Collegiate.Like usual, Ricci expects the Moose Jaw teams and Swift Current to be strong, but the second-year Elecs head coach is confident that his team will be able to keep up, and will be a strong competitor in the league."We know we're better than last year, we just have to play better and we'll be more of a complete team this year."Kickoff for the season opener is 4:30 p.m. at Woodlawn Regional Park.
