YORKTON – Yorkton Minor Football Vice-President and Treasurer Darcy Zaharia has been elected to Football Sask as their Vice-President.
The President for the Raider Gridder Alumni said the announcement came after the organization voted him in during their annual general meeting on March 27.
"I've talked for a handful of years that I should get involved with Football Sask. so Yorkton and rural communities can have a voice," said Zaharia in an interview with Yorkton This Week.
Zaharia said that in 2022 he'd put his name forward for a position with Football Canada, but didn't get it.
"The President gave me a call and he said, 'you didn't get it – but in two years the treasurer position is going to open and you'd be good at it, so I suggest maybe you go with Football Sask in the mean time,'" said Zaharia.
"Football Sask. is the governing body for all minor footballs and high schools," said Zaharia, adding, "they're the regulators—but their main goal is to grow the sport—I thought I'd put my name forward and be able to be a voice for rural football."
Zaharia said members of the board meet once every two months with his first meeting as a board member set for April.
"I think it's a really good time to get involved," said Zaharia, "I think we do a really good job here in Yorkton—everybody is involved with minor football—so I just want to take some of our knowledge to Football Sask."
"You can sit and talk about things and complain about things but if you don't put your hat in the ring there's no sense complaining—not that I have anything to complain about with Football Sask—everything is so different in rural communities compared to the city...just the travel itself—city teams don't have to travel—we pay for most of their travel to come here to play us," said Zaharia, adding, "little things like that—and there's lots of those little things that add up to a lot of things."
Zaharia said he's happy to represent rural communities.
"I'm not sure if I'm the first small town representative—I doubt it—but I'm looking forward to being one of the louder ones," said Zaharia, "I'm just happy that we're going to have a little Yorkton flavour there and represent smaller rural communities."
"It always seems like a lot of the good things go to the cities and not so much to rural communities—I'm not saying that's what's happening—but I'm going to make sure they have the small rural perspectives going forward into their decision processes."
