You cannot overstate the positive effect Cochrane’s Rob Cote and the Calgary Stampeders have on minor football in town.
Just ask Cochrane Bantam Lions head coach Paul McLean.
“First of all, I know Rob has been very involved in the community,” McLean says. “He’s helped us both in coming out to participate in a couple of practices over the years and being a role model for the players.
“Him being open to come to events and to participate in sessions has been really valuable to have a local professional football player taking the time and putting the effort and enthusiasm in to show the players he was one of them.”
And it’s not just Cote the player, who started football as a Cochrane Peewee Lion some 18 years ago. Cote’s dad, Cam Cote, has been the Bantam Lions offensive coordinator (OC) the last two seasons and Midget Lions OC prior to that. The senior Cote is a huge contributor annually to Cochrane Minor Football for the time he spends coaching young players in town. He was in Vancouver for the big game.
“After the game, I got on the horse. A little controversy in Vancouver,” Cam Cote joked about the Stampeders’ Quick Six which gallops down the sidelines when Calgary scores. “We were there.”
Along with his dad, Rob Cote also brings the cachet and clout of an elite pro football team just down the 1A to community events like fundraisers for Cochrane’s new all-weather, multi-sport playing surface. Stamps head coach John Hufnagel, quarterbacks Drew Tate and Bo Levi Mitchell, and running back Jon Cornish joined their Cochrane teammate in a June fundraising effort for the FieldTurf facility taking shape next to Bow Valley High School. The one-night initiative raised $200,000 for the field-construction fund.
“I think right from the onset of this project, where we held the fundraiser, we had amazing support,” recalls McLean, who’s one of the key figures in Cochrane’s initiative to have the all-weather field built. “We were talking about it while watching the Grey Cup. We had Tate, Bo Levi, Rob, Cornish and Hufnagel starting the fundraising kickoff. That wouldn’t have happened without Rob’s effort and the support of his teammates to come out and support a cause in the community.”
He also rallied his Stampeders teammates last offseason to support Cochrane High School Cobras Brock Wiebe’s fight against non-Hodgkins lymphoma in a Feb. 28 basketball fundraiser at CHS. Wiebe graduates from Cote’s high school alma mater this spring, the offensive lineman having beat back cancer and played a full season in helping his team win the 2014 Tier 3 provincial high school football title.
“Cote’s trek through amateur football in Cochrane and the Cobras at Cochrane High and then on to professional ball has been a very valuable reference for a lot of young players,” McLean related.
Rocky View
Sports Association
Most valuable player
Graeme Leitch, Springbank
Offensive player of year
Cody Stevens, CHS
Rookie of year
Tae Gordon, CHS
D-lineman of year
Justin Sambu, CHS
Defensive back
Jake McGorman, Springbank
Linebacker of year
Cole Perron, BVHS
Receiver
Jesse Schonacher, Springbank
Heart Awards
Zach Kibzey, BVHS
Kyle Chittick, Cochrane
All Stars
Scott Haigh, BVHS
Grayson Javorsky, BVHS
Eddie Tingley, BVHS
Mac Chaisson, CHS
Ethan Forrest, CHS
Matt Kremenik, CHS
Aidan Smith, CHS
Brock Wiebe, CHS
Mike Scott, CHS
Zach Deagle, CHS
Erik Nusl, CHS
Luke Jackson, Springbank
Devin Smith, Springbank
Hunter Chrisp, Springbank
Callum McCulloch- Graham, Springbank
Christopher Buchanan
Alberta Bantam Selects Team
Jackson McLean, linebacker, Cochrane Lions
