The Highwood Mustangs are holding their annual spring football camp this week.

Coach Brian Brandford says there's three big reasons to hold a camp before the kids break for the summer.

"There are kids here that are good athletes that have never played the game, so what we do is we just offer a week long series of drills and practices to get them to fall in love with the game. And hopefully they do and they come out in the fall. The second reason for the camp is just really to prepare for the fall. So we put in our base offence, our base defence, our base drills that we'll be using in the fall, so we're a step ahead on that. And the third reason is team building.

He says he's seeing a renewed interest in the sport in High River.

"And we're excited by that. We're getting lot's of the grade nine's and ten's that are interested in playing. So, I think you're going to see some increased numbers and some increased performances on the field in the fall."

The Mustangs will open their main football training camp shortly before the school year starts in late August.