COCHRANE— Cochrane Minor Football has announced its roster of coaches for the upcoming season.
This year at the helm of the Atom, Peewee and Bantam programs are head coaches Seth Henderson, Tyler Zunti and Mike Dangerfield, respectively.
The trio of coaches face an uncertain season, with COVID-19 threatening yet another season of competitive play.
But all three agree the game is a great opportunity to teach the youth that partake some important life lessons, especially in these unprecedented times.
Zunti played football in high school, went on to play a year at the University of Alberta, and spent another four years with the Edmonton Wildcats in the Prairie Football Conference. He said football taught him many valuable lessons in his personal life— Lessons he still uses to this day.
“I use that every day in life, how to be a good teammate. How to follow through on particular tasks, how to accept mistakes and not lay blame on others is something that was all taught to me through sport and through football,” he said.
Zunti got his start coaching football in Whitecourt, where he worked as a teacher and coached for the school’s football program. After stepping away from teaching for a few years, he moved to Cochrane.
When his own kids came of age to play football, he got involved with the Cochrane Lions football program as a coach once again, and six years later, is still with the organization. This will be his second year as the Peewee head coach.
He said he hopes football can impart many of the same life skills he learned from the game onto the youth that are moving through the program this season.
“What I try to pass along to the young guys is always to move forward, it’s OK to make mistakes, you can recover from mistakes, you can learn from mistakes and adversity and stress are not bad things. Adversity and stress make us stronger,” Zunti said. “When it comes to COVID-19, how we deal with it is a challenge that’s something that none of us have experienced in our lifetimes. The first time you deal with an unknown challenge is extremely difficult, and as you deal with it over and over again it becomes a little easier each time.”
He added many of the challenges posed by COVID-19 were dealt with last season, and that he is looking forward to focusing more on football this year.
Sport reflects life, Zunti said, and the lessons they learn, apart from how to play the game, are things that will aid them throughout their lives.
“The big takeaway is always skill development, that’s number one, but also how they learn to deal with adversity. That’s what I want to impart on them because that’s a skill they’re going to use throughout their life. That’s our job as coaches, is to put them in safe environments so that they can deal with adversity. Put them in an environment is safe that challenges them.”
Zunti said he hopes there is some sort of a return to normalcy for the program and that the league goes ahead with competitive play.
Dangerfield also played football as a young adult.
His dad was a general in the Canadian armed forces. As a family, they moved all over the world, including living in Canada, the United States and Germany.
Although his life often changed, Dangerfield said, football was a constant through all of it.
“My football experience started in Atom in Ottawa, and also in Peewee in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. That’s when I really fell in love with football was in Pennsylvania, because it’s like a religion down there,” he said. “Then it got really fun in Heidelberg, Germany, with the American high school that I went to there. They were the Heidelberg Lions as a matter of fact, so I’ve always been a Lion.”
He said the first year he was in the program in Germany, being coached by American soldiers living abroad, some of whom had professional football backgrounds, his team did not win a single game. Their next year, the coaches were able to turn the tides, and the Heidleberg Lions went undefeated.
“These were tough guys, so if you want to talk about overcoming fear and adversity, they were amazing,” he said. “That coaching staff turned us around and we went undefeated the next year, and won the Junior Varsity High School Championship for the American Armed Forces.”
He said the lessons he learned from those days have stuck with him all these years later.
“Discipline, work ethic, following a chain of command, those are things that were instilled in me at a very, very young age, and have been very helpful for me in business as an adult. To be successful I think you have to have respect for your chain of command and those who have authority and experience. If you’ve got good leadership and you follow their lead, you’re going to be successful too,” he said.
Dangerfield said he hopes to instill within the players he coaches a sense of community, family and integrity. He added as the youth grow up, they will be able to rely on the relationships they form now, and if they’re surrounded by good people, they will have a solid support system as they move on from football into the world.
“We coach integrity. Integrity is a very, very big part of what we do,” he said. “Integrity is about doing the right thing when no one is looking … We coach that big time. When you surround yourself with people with integrity, people who don’t have integrity start to not fit into your circle. And then you’re protected as you grow older, you look out for each other.”
Dangerfield said he is not worrying about the future of the league right now, in terms of whether or not the league will allow competitive play. Whatever the season looks like, he said, he’s focused on the moment, and what he can provide right now, which is a quality experience for the youth he coaches.
“I try not to worry about the past, because it's already happened and you can’t change it. The future hasn’t happened yet and you can drive yourself crazy worrying and wondering what it’s going to look like, but right now we are able to workout in pods of 10,” he said. “We’ve got players registering because they’re excited to workout together for the first time in a long time safely. And that’s what we’re focused on right now, and we’ll just roll with the punches as the future unfolds. We’ll adapt and we’ll remain positive.”
Henderson has been involved in coaching football for many years, with the championship-calibre Cochrane High Cobras. He’s been an assistant coach with the Cobras for six years previous to this past season, which he did not participate in due to COVID-19.
This will be his first year with the Lions, as his son is nearing the age where he will be able to participate in football.
Henderson said he wants to build on the foundation of the program for his children when they come of age.
“Kids need to see active, engaged citizens. Kids need to see that good, strong relationships, and relationship building is important, and that’s essential for a good strong community,” he said. “Nothing really gets done in a community by a sole individual, struggling by themselves to achieve anything. Usually, it takes many hands working on a goal to achieve that success, that’s that team attitude concept.”
Having individuals who set the example, provide solid leadership, and people who are willing to sacrifice their time to build community connections will reinforce those lessons in the young athletes.
“Hopefully those lessons, that they take and learn, they take out into the broader context of community,” Henderson said.
Although those lessons are important, they are only one-half of what Henderson hopes to teach the youth this year.
“Football is fun and should always be fun, and it should be a sport that challenges them to become better athletes, better people, better human beings, better teammates, and through that fun and engaging atmosphere they’re going to learn those skills,” he said. “Those are the two big things I hope the kids take away— Wins and losses really don’t matter at the Atom age, in my opinion. It’s about learning how to work together as a team, setting good solid, sound goals, how we’re going to achieve those goals, skill development, all that good stuff.”
The Cochrane Lions president, Paul Vaillancourt has said that he hopes the league will move forward with a competitive schedule in the fall, and plans to take part in it should league games be given the green light.
Henderson said he agrees with that sentiment and hopes to see a return to competitive play as well.
“I totally agree with that. I would rather us have some type of competitive context. It’s important for the kids to see that the skills they’re learning on the field can translate to something that’s different than just practice,” he said.
On the field, Henderson said, there are always going to be bigger, faster and stronger players, which is important for kids to realize. Through hard work, he said, anybody can become that dominant player in a game.
“Buckling down, hard work, determination, developing that sense of perseverance, that they can achieve, can make you that person on the field too over time. You might, through your practice, and your sacrifice, and your determination, and your willingness to compete and your willingness to go through the grind, so to speak, you might become that person who is the biggest, the strongest, the fastest,” he said. “All of that stuff is important for kids to understand and learn. The reason why competitiveness needs to happen is that kids need to understand that there’s loss. Sometimes you’re going to try your hardest and you’re going to lose, and they’re going to need to learn lessons from that … How you deal with those, in sound and solid ways, is important for kids to learn.”
Registration for the Cochrane Lions football club is open and will remain open until the rosters are full. The club accepts kids of any size and athletic ability.
To find out more visit cochranefootball.com/.
