As the Prince Albert River Riders get established in the community, things are a little different than in Bob Trann's day.

The 62-year-old Prince Albertan played midget football in 1962 back when there was four teams in the city - East Hill, West Hill, East Flat and West Flat.

Trann played one season for East Hill at the start of Grade 9 before playing four years of high school football for the Golden Bears at Prince Albert Collegiate Institute.

During his time with the East Hill midget squad, Trann and his teammates hoped every weekend that they'd be involved in the first game of the day.

"The first two teams wore fresh uniforms," Trann said. "The next two teams that played wore the ones that the other two teams wore before."

It might seem strange now, but that's just how it was back in the 1960s.

"It was pretty different, I tell you, but when you're a 14- or 15-year-old kid, you don't care," Trann said. "You're out there to play football. Nowadays, the kids might think about it, but back then we didn't."

Now, the minor football program is getting re-established in Prince Albert with the bantam and peewee River Riders. There's one team in each division and both are seeing increasing numbers each year.

"That's getting a lot more young kids into the sport," PACI coach Graham McGregor said of the youth program. "They, in turn, are going to be feeding the programs at PACI, St. Mary and Carlton."

McGregor added there could be more River Riders teams being formed at the peewee and bantam levels in the near future with all the youngsters who have expressed interest in playing.

"I think they actually ended up turning kids away, which is not something that they wanted to do," McGregor added.

Also coming down the pipe is a new six-man tackle football league for Grade 7 and 8 students to play in in the spring.

The Canadian Football League is promoting the initiative and there are already plans for leagues in Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Regina and many other Canadian cities.

McGregor said registration information would likely be released in about a week.