SPORTS & RECREATIONOut-of-Town Football Clubs Draw Niverville Players

Niverville offers many sports for active kids, such as soccer, baseball, and hockey. Parents who want to get their kids into football, however, have to look out of town. They can play for Steinbach’s team, the Eastman Raiders, or the St. Vital Mustangs.

St. Vital and Steinbach are approximately the same distance from Niverville, a 30-minute drive. Both organizations also provide all the equipment needed to play football, with the exception of cleats.

Unlike soccer, baseball, or hockey, football has a unique season which runs from July until the end of October, although games only start in August.

The Eastman Raiders have been in operation for 26 years. “Teams practice two to three times a week,” says club president Sean Walsh. “This year we have nine players spread throughout all age levels that come from Niverville.”

The youngest son of Greg Fehr, Niverville’s former mayor, plays Raider football. “We’ve had three boys in the Eastman Raiders football club over the years,” Fehr says. “The Raiders seemed more kid-centric and not as ultracompetitive. The kids also had a lot of their friends on the Eastman Raiders.”

The St. Vital Mustangs football club has existed for 68 years. According to Dan Fontaine, the club’s vice president, “Currently we have five players who reside in Niverville. We would love to see this number grow! In the late 1980s and early 90s, the St. Vital Mustangs fielded four teams across four different age groups. This season the football club has twelve teams taking part in the football community.”

Both organizations typically have eight regular season games, plus playoffs and some exhibition. The cost to enter your kids ranges from $200–$320 for the season.

“I only played for one year when I was twelve,” says Joel Braun, who grew up in Niverville but played for the Mustangs. “I enjoyed it, though a lot of the guys on the team had played together for a few years already. Ultimately, I think that if I would have given it another year or played in a year where I was one of the older players, I would’ve enjoyed it more and possibly kept playing.”

The age to start playing hockey or soccer is typically around three or four, while the age to start playing football is around seven.

“While football has garnered a lot of media attention over the past years in relation to concussions, it is a very safe sport to play,” adds Fontaine. “In youth competition, soccer, hockey, and baseball all have higher concussion rates than football.”