The Cochrane High School Cobras are sending four players off to one of the biggest dates on Football Alberta’s calendar: the 27th annual Senior Bowl.
Erik Nusl (receiver), Evan Perrault (receiver), Justin Sambu (defensive line), and Michael Scott (offensive line) are among the lucky 43 Grade 12 players selected from Tiers 1A to 4A in Southern Alberta to make the trip to Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on May 23, to face a Northern Alberta all-star team.
“I’m super excited to be able to play in this game,” Nusl said. “It’s a huge honour.”
Eight Cobras took part in the tryouts at McMahon Stadium, which brought out around 100 players April 15 to 17.
Going into the weekend, Nusl knew he would have to be at his best in order to seal a trip to the big show.
“I was expecting there to be a lot of good kids at camp,” he admitted. “Everyone who plays in southern Alberta wants to be there, and I knew there’d be a lot of competition.
“I felt good going into it, and was prepared and ready to show my best.”
For Nusl, his final year of Cobras football has been marked by success after success such as winning another Tier 3 provincial championship, and being signed by the University of Calgary Dinos. Being selected for the Senior Bowl was icing on the cake.
“It’s been really nice to have my hard work rewarded,” he said. “I’ve tried out for some Alberta teams before and came up short, so it was great to make this one.”
One of the Cobras coaches, Jim Forrest (defensive co-ordinator), is also heading to Edmonton as a member of head coach Darren Olson’s (Tier 2 coach of the year) staff.
“I’ve done the Senior Bowl a couple times, but never as the defensive co-ordinator,” he said. “So, that’s an interesting new wrinkle to the whole thing.”
For a school with the size of Cochrane’s population, Forrest is immensely proud that four kids from its program will be representing the school in May.
“It’s pretty unusual to have that many kids make the team,” he said. “We had a really strong group of kids at tryouts and I thought they all had a shot at the team.
“None of the kids who made the team are a surprise, because I knew their skill. When we did the final selections, a lot of our guys were on the bubble of getting picked.”
