Fort McMurray team won’t give up season

The devastating fires in Fort McMurray may have taken away many of their homes, their jobs and their livelihood, but that is not stopping the Fort McMurray Monarchs from moving forward.

Much like the residents of the Northern Alberta region, the football team is standing tall during tough times and are going to play the 2016 Alberta Football League season.

“You didn’t even have to upsell the idea to the guys,” Monarchs president Jesse Maddox said. “They looked at this as a pretty easy decision when you see all the firefighters, EMTs, nurses, police officers doing everything they can to save our city. We want to play (this season) for them.”

It’s taken an extraordinary effort from the football community to keep the Monarchs’ season alive. The season opens on May 28, and with no facility to play or practice in, no equipment to use, the football community stepped up.

The Edmonton Eskimos donated jerseys, pants, gloves and other equipment.

The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders also helped out with equipment donations.

Even some of their opposition in the AFL joined in the efforts to save the Monarchs’ season.

The team will be playing their “home” games at Fuhr Sports Park in Spruce Grove and will be holding practices at various fields around the city of Edmonton during the first half of the season in hopes of moving back into Fort McMurray to play their final regular season home game on Aug. 6.