The wins and losses will count for real starting today.

The Steinbach Regional Secondary School will meet the River East Kodiaks at 5 p.m. at River East Collegiate in their 2015 Winnipeg High School Football League season opener.

The SRSS football program, which began in 2010, is now into year six.

"It makes me feel old," said Sabres head coach Jamie Peters with a chuckle. "It's been a cool experience for the eight years that I've been here, just working on getting this program off the ground and then just try to keep developing it. It's super exciting that we're in year six. We've made ourselves a name in the football community, and in the league and we just look to keep building on that."

The prep work for season six began with rookie camp, flowed into spring camp and then on to training camp.

Peters says the performance of this years crop of rookie players will go a long way in determining the success of the football team.

"We're looking for a lot of our first-year guys to step up and fill key roles and we're looking for some other players to just keep developing and build for years to come and be depth players."

The Sabres are heading into their season opener riding a bit of momentum.

The SRSS chewed up 200 yards on the ground and forced five turnovers in a 32-7 victory over the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes in their lone exhibition game last Thursday in Steinbach.

Coach Peters is looking forward to facing the Kodiacs and getting the 2015 WHSFL season started.

"I think it's going to be a hard-fought game similar to our preseason game. I feel River East is going to be a top level team in this division and I think we can hang with them and battle. We just got to make sure that we don't turn the ball over and we try to force turnovers - keep that game nice and close until the fourth quarter and then we'll bring it home in the end."

Steinbach Regional's home opener is Thursday, September 17th at A.D. Penner Park against the team the Sabres lost to in last years Kas Vidruk "AA" Division final - the St. Paul's Crusaders.