An unprecedented number of Airdrie-based football players will compete in this year's Football Alberta Senior Bowl – an all-star game featuring the best of the best Grade 12 players from across the province.
Twelve members of Airdrie's three public high-school football programs – the George McDougall Mustangs, W.H. Croxford Cavaliers, and Bert Church Chargers – tried out for the southern Alberta team, and nine were able to crack the roster.
The players from Airdrie schools who will take part in the game include Marcus Lowe, Ryan Pace, Brydon Cameron, Ty Ochitwa, Kaden McFadzen, Charlie Wiersma, Robert Lasebnik, Paul Condon, Dawson Jensen.
George McDougall's representation includes Condon, Lasebnik, and Jensen; Croxford's player is Marcus Lowe, and Bert Church is the most represented local school, with Wiersma, Cameron, McFadzen, Ochitwa, and Pace all flying the Chargers flag at the upcoming game.
Mustangs head coach Chris Glass, who is also going to be the southern Alberta team's quarterback coach and special teams coordinator, said it's a testament to the growth of football in Airdrie that so many local players were able to make the Senior Bowl team this year.
The tryouts were held last weekend in Calgary.
“This really put our city on the map in a lot of ways,” Glass said. “With 12 kids trying out and nine making the team from the Airdrie area, it’s such a great show of what we’re accomplishing here in the city.”
An annual tradition in the spring, the Senior Bowl will pit opposing all-star squads from northern and southern Alberta against each other.
This year's game will take place in Lacombe over the May long weekend. After three days of two-a-day training sessions, the game will officially kick off on the holiday Monday.
To put this year's local representation into perspective, Glass said it is "by far" the most Airdrie players that successfully tried out for the Senior Bowl. Looking back just four years ago, the 2019 Senior Bowl game included just one Airdrie player – W.H. Croxford's Jamal Bacchus.
In addition, Glass noted Airdrie athletes will comprise roughly one-quarter of the southern team's roster.
“It just shows the growth in the city,” he said. “[Before], having three people trying out was good. It’s so cool to see almost 25 per cent of the team will come from our city, when you think of southern Alberta – Raymond, Lethbridge, Calgary area…There is a lot of good football played there, so to have 25 per cent of the team coming from one city is pretty neat.”
For close observers of high-school football in Alberta, Airdrie's impressive representation is not that much of a surprise. Last season saw record-setting accomplishments for both the Mustangs and the Cavaliers, who spent much of the 2022 season ranked in the top 10 of Tier II high-school football teams by Football Alberta.
George McDougall won its first Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) banner in eight years last October, ultimately producing an 8-3 record. W.H. Croxford finished third in the division and boasted an 8-2 record.
The work done with football players at the high-school level, as well as the midget, bantam, peewee and atom levels below that, is contributing to a growth in the strength of Airdrie football overall, Glass said.
“Coaching depth is always an issue when it comes to football, but it seems like in Airdrie, all three high schools have great staff,” he said. “The bantam team is well staffed and the work done at the peewee and atom level has allowed us to make sure there’s enough coaches for all three high-school teams. I think that’s such a key thing to make sure you’re developing your players. Croxford really showed this year what happens when you get those kinds of coaches in, and what they can do with it.”
Glass described the Senior Bowl as a way for Alberta's top Grade 12 players to see out their three-year high-school football careers in a fun manner, playing alongside some of the players they typically have only played against in the past.
“The nice thing about Senior Bowl is that it’s one last time to strap on your high-school helmet and go show what your school is capable of in an all-star format,” he said. “The three years you play, that’s for you, and then that one game is kind of about giving back to your high school.”
