Despite their loss against Cochrane in the Kraft Celebration Tour last week, members of the Innisfail Minor Football Association hope to keep the momentum of support they drummed up last week continuing.
For 24 hours on July 11, the association went head to head with the town of Cochrane, the only other Albertan group chosen as part of the Kraft Celebration Tour.
The tour is part of an online voting competition that grants $25,000 to 10 winning communities across Canada to go towards improvements to a local recreation facility and serve as a backdrop for a live broadcast of SportsCentre.
It was one of 20 teams from 572 applications for the upcoming competition.
At the end of the voting, Cochrane took the win and the money after receiving 154,803 votes. Innisfail was behind with 96,120.
“If you look at the size of Cochrane with Calgary right behind them, you can't compete,” said James Thompson, bantam coach for the association. He said they were able to rally the support from Red Deer and other communities but believes the smaller population stopped the group short.
He said even though they didn't win, the support they received was amazing.
“We started a Facebook page and had kids canvass the town.” He also said some of the businesses let the players set up in their store to tell shoppers of the upcoming contest.
He said a clip was put together by TSN to showcase the town and profiled the Discovery Wildlife Park, the police dog training facility and finally the football field.
“They captured the profile of the town and I thought that was neat.” He said friends from other provinces would call to say they heard about Innisfail on TV.
“Everyone really rallied for us. The money would have been fantastic. But the biggest win is the 100,000 people who voted for Innisfail Minor Football. That shows community spirit.”
He said the association will continue to build on the support they've receive to try and raise some sponsorship so they can pay for the things they need which include a proper scoreboard and more equipment for the training camps.
