One way or another, the Estevan Elecs high school football team plans on building itself a suitable locker room for the 2010 season.But the project is going to require more than a little change.The price tag for a new building and fence at the Elecs' practice field just south of Estevan Comprehensive School is approximately $100,000.Funding is currently in place to begin construction on the building's foundation. The football program, however, won't get the facility by the fall unless it raises the rest of the money itself."Our challenge is that we need to raise $100,000 for fence and for locker room and when I tell people we're building a locker room they don't know and they don't know why, so that's why we're hoping that we can get this out there," Brenda Lyons, speaking on behalf of a newly-formed organization of ECS football parents, said in an interview Friday.The answer seems to be as much about credibility and sustainability as it is about hygiene.Despite the school's efforts to find a more appropriate space, last year's Elecs - the first ECS football team in 36 years - changed and stored their equipment in an eight-by-10 foot room inside the school.Players had to dress for practices in small groups instead of as a team."You can guess how that smelled," Elecs head coach Marco Ricci said in a press release.Added Lyons: "If we have a locker room, that will help sustain the program. All of a sudden we've got this building and the kids will know that this team is not going anywhere. The kids that are 10 and playing minor football will know there is a high school team that is going to be there for them."Plans for one fundraiser fell through recently but Lyons says others are in the works. The Elecs players have also been taking baby steps toward their goal by volunteering as parking attendants at the Estevan Fair and helping clear branches at Boundary Dam, among other activities."We want to prove that these kids want it and that the boys are actually working for this locker room," said Lyons.Fully funded or not, construction on the foundation of the new 1,600 square foot locker room is expected to begin shortly."We are not going to fail. We are going to have something up for this season," she said.
