The Bow Valley Bobcats football team is shaking off the rust and are looking forward to the upcoming season, which will kick off for them on Sept. 7 against the George McDougall Mustangs. 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. All of that is in the past though, as the Bobcats began their first week of practice on Aug. 22 in preparation for the upcoming season as well as an exhibition game against the St. Albert Skyhawks on Aug. 30. Head coach Cam Cote said he's happy with what he's seen from his team so far. "We have a younger team this year, but they're a very enthusiastic group. We've got a great energy at practice, we really do. This is a very energetic group so the energy is very high and it makes the practices a lot of fun," Cote said. "You really want your team to be balanced. In a perfect world, our team would be divided into thirds. A third of the team is Grade 10, a third is Grade 11 and then the final third is made up of Grade 12's ... we're going to be out of balance this year, which I guess you could say is a negative because we're young. You'd like to be balanced because that brings stability, which then brings success. Success breeds numbers which then brings more success. The positive is that we've got a good energy and that we'll have our successes and with that, we'll build for next year." While it's very early in the season, Cote said one young player could be poised for a breakout campaign and should make an impact from the opening kick off of the first game. "In generality, the young guys at both the receivers and linebackers position are looking outstanding. The one fellow I think we need to talk about is Brody Sizebottom," Cote said. "Brody's a Grade 10 student, who played a lot of baseball in the past but has never played football before and is going to step in as a Grade 10 as our starting quarterback ... he's been impressive in the first few days of practice." Last season brought a lot of uncertainty for the Bobcats, as they played out much of the season not knowing if they were going to be placed in Tier 3 or Tier 4. With Bow Valley playing in Tier 3 again this season, Cote said it makes it easier to prepare for the season. "It takes away the uncertainty away from it for sure. They're (the league and school board) telling me that in the next few years we might not even be in Tier 3," Cote said. "I guess Bow Valley is just slated to explode population wise. I don't think it'll catch us that much by surprise, but Bow Valley will be the large school in town very shortly." With an exhibition game upcoming, the Bobcats head coach is looking for his team to get all the kinks out before the season starts up for real on Sept. 7. "We put a new offence in so we want to see the kids starting to understand the offence as well as seeing some execution. We'll probably see a lot of mistakes, but we want to see the kids grow throughout the game," said Cote. "On defence, our scheme will be the same but we'll have a lot of new guys stepping into those roles and we want to see them execute the game plan as the game goes on ... we just want to see growth throughout the game." "You're always looking for improvement from game-to-game, even quarter-to-quarter but we expect to have our wins and we want our wins for sure."
