Having a proper official field will, at the very least, help kids already playing football learn the full scope of the sport, and Football Newfoundland and Labrador hopes it will also boost interest in the game.

The first kick-off at the new football field at Wishingwell Park in St. John's was on Saturday.

For players like Ethan Hillier and Landon Critch, football wasn't much on their radar, but they signed up anyway.

It's really the first time they can play a full football game. - Brian Hillier, president of Football N.L.

"I was like, I'm gonna give it a shot and see how I like it," said Hillier, who is the Pirates quarterback. "It's been four years playing football, and I enjoy playing it."

"I played basketball, but I was kind of the big kid, and one day mom said 'you can't just give up' … and she said 'there's the sport of football,' and I was like OK when does it start?" said Pirates centre Landon Critch.

"My size, I get to tackle … I like that I get to tackle and have fun with my friends."

From left, Ethan Hillier, Landon Critch, and their coach, Tom Fleming, of the Under 14 St. John's Pirates. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

Canada's sport is hockey, of course, but for our neighbours south of the border, it's football.

So for Avalon Minor Football coach Jeff Graves, who's originally from Louisiana, coming to St. John's and volunteering as a football referee was a "culture shock."

"Where I'm from, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, those areas, football is almost a religion of its own. Small towns in Texas actually shut down on Friday nights to go to high-school football games," Graves told CBC's Weekend AM.

Jeff Graves, originally from Lousiana, is a coach and referee with Avalon Minor Football. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

"I can't think of anybody that I know from back home that isn't a football fan in some capacity."

Graves has played football nearly his entire life, and even won scholarships to play college football, but he joined the military instead.

After the military he got into the oil industry in Texas; in 2017, his company transferred him to St. John's. Graves offered to be a volunteer football referee, but when people in the league found out he coached in the U.S. he was recruited to do the same here.

Back to basics

He likes St. John's, with its slower pace of life and family-oriented nature, and hopes teaching kids what he's learned through his decades playing football will give them the same life skills he credits to the sport.

"Most of the kids, what they know about football is what they learned playing Madden on game systems, so it's definitely different, because where I come from, by the time kids are eight, nine, 10 years old they know all the fundamentals," Graves said.

I don't foresee it ever being as big as hockey, but I hope it does. - Jeff Graves

"But it's good to go back to basics and to be able to teach kids from the very early baby stages of football and teach them the fundamentals and watch them grow and develop, so it's actually great."

A big part of developing football is getting actual upright goalposts, and a proper football field with lines.

"It's really the first time they can play a full football game," said Brian Hillier, president of Football N.L.

Football N.L. is a mixed-gender contact league. (Football Newfoundland and Labrador/Facebook)

"Before we'd never be able to kick field goals, and this year now, we've had kids playing for five years and this is the first time they've been able to do that part of the game."

The goalposts cost around $10,000, and funding for them came from Football N.L., the Avalon Minor Football league, the City of St. John's, the provincial government and Husky Energy.

The City of St. John's also provided the former soccer field, now converted into a football field, at no charge, Hillier said.

"For us it gave the players, it gave us, an identity, in terms of not having a home, always playing on a soccer field or a field that was open," said Hillier.

"We finally have a place that we can call our own.

Brian Hillier, Football N.L. president, at the new Canadian Football field at Wishingwell Park in St. John's. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

There are around 100 kids playing with the league in the St. John's region, another 75 in western Labrador and a smaller group in Corner Brook, Hillier said.

He's hoping that someday there will be enough demand for kids who want to play football to warrant more official fields.

"My dream is that there'll be a football field and upright in every major centre of this province, so it becomes just like soccer or hockey, that we start having our provincial tournaments and triple, quadruple the number of kids that play."

Meanwhile, Graves admits it's unlikely football will ever catch on in Canada the way it's beloved in the States.

"I don't foresee it ever being as big as hockey, but I hope it does," said Graves. "I'm hoping kids can come and enjoy the camaraderie of football."

With files from Heather Barrett

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