BY CRAIG SLATER, LEADER-POST
Jon Baxter barely recognizes his Regina Riot team this season.
That's a good thing. "It's night and day compared to where we were at a year ago," said the Riot head coach, his team scheduled to play its Western Women's Canadian Football League home opener on Sunday versus the Winnipeg Wolfpack. "We're a lot younger, a lot faster, a lot stronger and more athletic. We've had improvements across the board."
The franchise joined the WWCFL in 2011 and posted a 2-2 record during the regular season. The Riot carries a 1-1 record into Sunday's tilt - 11 a.m. at Mosaic Stadium - after the team evened its record on May 27 with a 39-7 victory over the Manitoba Fearless.
Veteran Melissa Park goes back to last season and compares the atmosphere in the team locker room. She said she has seen steady progress and that she's pleased with the direction the franchise is moving in.
"There isn't that nervous anxiety anymore," she said. "There's no more of that deer-in-the-headlights look we used to have. The excitement is there, but there's this desire and this attitude like we're going to win. I'm not sure it was there a year ago."
Baxter said a major overhaul was needed as the team prepared for the 2012 season. Three new coaches were added to the team, along with 23 new players. The average age of his defensive line went from 40 in 2011 to 26 this season.
"We did a really good job in the way we approached this season," he said. "We really recruited well ... we added some good athletes, athletes that we were missing a year ago."
With the high turnover, the Riot coaching staff felt the timing was right to reintroduce the basic fundamentals of the game to the players.
"We would go over it in practice and they said they got it, but they didn't really have it," Baxter said in reference to last season. "We just took it for granted that they knew what they were doing, that they knew how to tackle, how to take the right angle, how to wrap up, things like that.
"As it turned out, they didn't know, and it showed. Now, they just do it and do it well without even thinking about it."
The Riot is to hold a pep rally today at noon at the practice field at Mosaic Stadium. Among the festivities, there will be a BBQ, facepainting and dino bouncers. Riot players will take part in a punt-pass-kick demonstration with children in attendance.
