Following a 2016 season that saw the Swift Current Comp. Colts football team reach the 3A 12-Man Moose Jaw League final, their home field will now be seeing some improvements as well.

"We are pretty excited to, hopefully have ready to go in time (for the 2017 season), a brand new score clock and new set of uprights replacing the stuff that we had, that's probably past its time," said Colts Head Coach Derek Murdoch.

Currently using the 'H' styled uprights, they will be replaced with the more common 'Gooseneck' single post upright.

Helping out the school and the football team, BASF is covering the costs of the new uprights.

When asked about replacing the uprights, Murdoch said the old ones were certainly passed their prime.

"I think the uprights are vintage 1967, or whenever the school opened, so they have been here a long time and are starting to show their age," he said. "We are pretty excited to replace them."

The new uprights will not only have a more modern look to them, but will be safer for the players as well.

No longer will there be two posts in the ground to support the upright, instead it will just be one post in the middle of the crossbar.

When it comes to the new score clock, another local company stepped up to the plate to assist the team.

Crop Production Services will be paying for the score clock, which Murdoch says was becoming more and more necessary with each passing season.

"The score clock, obviously, is probably a bigger deal in terms of the price tag and probably has a bit more of a 'wow' factor to it," he said. "We have been fighting with ours for the past three or four seasons with some different issues, so we are pretty excited to replace that with a shiny new one with the Colts logo on it."

Knowing the both items were in need of replacing, sooner rather than later, Murdoch took a simple approach in trying to seek out funding.

"It was just one of those things where we had our banquet in November after our season and I had just thrown it out to the crowd that we were looking to try and find a way to purchase a new clock because our old one was on its last legs," he said. "Right away, one of the dads who works at Crop Production Services said that he was interested and it went from there. Then, it was the same kind of conversation with another dad about uprights and how we wanted to replace what we had and all of a sudden the ball was rolling. We are very fortunate to have the support that we have in the community."

The Colts will hold their annual Summer Camp from June 5-8 in preparation for the upcoming season, which they will begin on September 9 in Weyburn.

They are hopeful to have the uprights and score clock ready to roll for the following week when they host their 2017 home opener September 14.

Regardless of the installation time, Murdoch is simply thankful for the outside support knowing that reinforcements are on the way.

"I don't know if you can overstate how important it is, especially with the current economic climate we are in," he said regarding the community support from both BASF and Crop Production Services. "It would be very tough for us as a school or a football program to make these upgrades on our own."