The Steinbach Regional Secondary School's football program will celebrate a milestone this afternoon when the Sabres face the St. Paul's Crusaders in Winnipeg.

The SRSS will start season 10 in the Winnipeg High School Football League.

"It's pretty crazy," said Steinbach Regional phys-ed instructor Jamie Peters who was instrumental in getting the football program off the ground. "It makes me feel old. The goal always was to get this program to Division One and we're in year 10 and we're entering our third season in Division One and we have a title in Division Three and Division Two. Now it's try to build ourselves into a top four contender in the top division."

"A goal that we didn't really have or set out to have was a JV program and that also developed and that's heading into year three. There's been a lot of change and been a lot of progress in the 10 years. I just can't thank everybody enough - the coaches, the school support, the division support, the parental and player support - it's been awesome to build it and see it grow."

Peters says convincing those in charge of the WHSFL that the school was ready to join the league wasn't that challenging.

"We had to make sure we had a little bit of a plan and develop a presentation but I think they saw the community and the Eastman Raiders football program as well. The high school league was pretty confident that we were going to be able to build something sustainable here. In terms of maybe the success we had, I'm not sure if they would have necessary predicted that. It's been a ton of fun and it's been a great opportunity for about 70-80 players in school that don't play traditional school sports. That's been something where we've been able to find some of these kids a place where they can connect to something within our building and be proud to call themselves a Sabre."

"Building the capacity to maintain this program has been a huge part of this program," added Peters. "It's something that has been supported through with all of our administration beginning with Luis Reis and then transferring to Sherry Bestvater and Cam Kelbert. Having Stephen Fedus being the head coach of the varsity team and Kerry Friesen with the JV team and developing that. I have about 11-12 guys that have played for me that are coaching. Our coaching staff is around anywhere from 13-17 people and they all have varing degrees of commitment. That has been a challenge but it's also been a lot of fun to see and have it grow. Actually the last two years I kind of stepped back a little bit when I had young kids of my own and had other people step up. Building that has been the key to keeping this program going and it will be the key to having it continue to grow and be sustainable."

The Sabres will play their home opener Thursday, September 12th against the Murdoch Mackay Clansmen at A.D. Penner Park in Steinbach.