A Prince Albert River Rider fights off a tackle during a game against the Clavet Cougars at Max Clunie Field on Sept. 24, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Nick Nielsen

River Riders loading the ships

Minor football season kicks off this weekend

Sep 6, 2025 | 1:00 PM

Football season is here, and all different age groups are hitting the gridiron through the fall months, with some changes going on around the league.

Overall, Prince Albert Minor Football has seen a solid year for numbers registering to take part, and already this weekend, teams are hitting the field.

There are some changes to minor football this year, according to P.A. Minor Football President Taras Kachkowski, but overall, he’s happy with registration numbers this year.

“We’re reasonably healthy. Between our atom program for Grades 4 and 5 up to our bantams, which is Grades 8 and 9, there are about 80 kids registered, so 20 something per team, which is reasonably good. The Grade 4 and 5 level plays six-player football, so you only need like 15-20 players per roster, and then our peewees play nine-player football, so we’ve got like 27 there, so that’s a decent number. Our bantam numbers are perhaps a little low for playing 12-player football, which is what we normally play at that level.”

There are going to be some changes to the program P.A. Minor Football is offering this year at the different levels. Starting with their peewee division, this year they won’t have as many teams to play against.

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“Last year, there were 10 teams in the league, this year there are seven. Unfortunately North Battleford felt they were unable to participate in either the peewee or bantam level, and also actually Saskatoon was down a couple of teams. We played a six-game season at that level, and so with seven teams, I think honestly works out better because basically our season consists of playing each team once, and so it’s fair for everybody, kind of a round robin.”

That will also change the playoff format this year for the peewees. Each of the seven teams in the league is guaranteed at least one playoff game, so this year the top four teams will battle for a league championship, and the bottom three teams will play a ‘tri-bowl’ consolation final.

At that peewee level, where Kachkowski coaches, he’s excited to see what his team can do. Going into the first few practices, he believes this peewee group is one of the strongest he’s had.

“It’s honestly one of the most naturally athletic teams we’ve had at that level for quite some time. They’re smart kids, a lot of them have gone through the various programs that we have at our younger ages, so they’re very knowledgeable of the game, and we’ve got some nice new additions as far as players new to the game that are taking it well, and I think we’re going to have a successful season this year.”

The one area that is down from where Kachkowski would like to see is with the bantam level program, which usually plays 12-man football. The league that P.A. Minor Football plays in, the Saskatoon Kinsmen Football League (KFL), changed their recommended team size to 32 players.

With only 26 players by the deadline to join the league, the bantam program had to drop out of the league instead. That isn’t going to stop P.A. Minor Football from getting the kids some game time, however.

“We’ll be playing a couple of exhibition games against programs outside of the KFL, six-player and nine-player games with Shellbrook and Wakaw, and so we’re looking forward to those games with those programs this season at that level.”

The peewee Prince Albert River Riders will play their first game in Saskatoon on Sunday against the Babineau Warriors.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com