The Bow Valley Bobcats football got off to a tough start in the first game of their Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) season after a 43-19 loss to the George McDougall Mustangs in a hard fought game on Sept. 7. A year removed from a spectacular run in which the Bobcats won the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) Tier 4 Provincial championship, the team’s first since 2003, the Bobcats were bumped up to Tier 3 due to an increase in school population. Bow Valley struggled in league play finishing with a 2-4 record, only scoring 65 points over six regular season games, which translates into an average of just over 10 points per game. The team finished off their season on Nov. 4, 2017, with a 51-0 loss at the hands of their cross-town rival Cochrane High Cobras in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) Division 3 Championship game. The Bobcats are once again fielding a very young team this season so head coach Cam Cote was fairly pleased with how his team played despite the 24 point loss to the Mustangs. "I would disagree with the the fact that it was a tough loss. I think that was a moral win for us ... George Mac is a much more mature team and they haven't faced the adversity and loss of players that we've had," Cote said. "They're a bigger school so no that was a win for us in my eyes. I couldn't be more proud of our players and coaches, I thought where we were at last Friday compared to where I thought we'd be ... we're way ahead of where we thought we'd be." Cote said there were some parts of the team's game that he was pleased with and believes they'll be a strength moving forward, while there are other parts that need improvement before the Bobcats next game against the Springbank Phoenix. "I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job of providing protection, our quarterback (Brody Sizebottom) was in his first regular season football game he had played in his life, never mind at quarterback ... I thought he had a great game and I thought the receivers did a good job catching the ball. The running backs did very well, provided a lot of spark and the defence had a couple of breakdowns, but you expect that in the first game," said Cote. "But the defence went out there and hit hard, made a bunch of tackles and other than a couple breakdowns where they got beat over the top, the defence was really solid." Cote said the play of Sizebottom really stood out as a positive impact on the team starting in his first high school game. "It's not only his first game but he's a Grade 10 student. We would be one of the few very teams if not the only team in the province starting a Grade 10 quarterback in senior high school football. He looked fabulous and only made two bad reads throughout the whole game," Cote said. "You'll get that with a Grade 12 quarterback for crying out lot ... a couple bad reads is just part of the learning curve. I thought it was a great night for us overall. We don't like settling for losses, but there are a lot of positives to take away from this game." Bow Valley will now technically be the visitors against the 0-1 Springbank Phoenix, which was originally scheduled to be played at Edge Field but is now going to be played at Spray Lake Sawmills Legacy Field due to the fact that the scoreboard has yet to be installed at Edge. Cote said his team will need to clean up the mistakes in order to come away with a victory. "Springbank has been very strong, they're typically second in the league just behind Cochrane so you expect no less, they'll come out and play very good," Cote said. "We can't make those mistakes that we made against George McDougall. That's what this week of practice is about, is cleaning up those mistakes ... we've got a very young team so the learning curve is pretty sharp with these guys. On defence, we worked on not giving up the deep ball, so I think we can shut that deep ball down and offensively we're working on our reads so I think we'll give Springbank a good game." Kick off for the contest will go at 4 p.m.
