You only take out what you put in.
Cochrane’s Kellen Forrest has put in three training camps worth of effort with the University of Calgary Dinos football team. The 20-year-old defensive back has been a solid team guy all through his lengthy apprenticeship with the top university football program in Western Canada.
The Cochrane High School Cobras 2012 grad has done everything asked of him by coaches. He added five pounds of muscle in the offseason and moved from cornerback to halfback. A brief “Hi, how are you?” with athletic academic coordinator Sandra Wigg confirms Forrest is an “excellent” student in U of C’s Haskayne business stream.
His dedication has finally paid off.
He was one of 42 Dinos players on the plane Aug. 27, winging to Laval for the team’s Aug. 30 Canadian Interuniversity Sport season-opener and a rematch with the team that edged U of C 25-14 in last year’s Vanier Cup final.
He’s moved out of that unenviable, uncertain space between auditioning and playing. If it was weighing on him, it didn’t show.
“Third day of camp, so I’m a little sore,” the 5-foot-11, 190-pound defensive back cracks as he jogs across the field following a post-morning-practice stretching session. Players will break for lunch, hold mid-day meetings, weight-lift and review film before returning to the field for a second 90-minute practice in full equipment.
“Coming into this year I knew I had to step up,” Forrest says days before being told he’s on the Dinos travelling roster. “I moved into a new position so the first couple of days have been a learning process.
“But it’s coming.”
Forrest has moved off the corner, football’s lonely island on the outside of the field where you are tasked with covering the opposing team’s fastest, most dangerous big-play receivers. He’s moved to the middle of the field, where there’s more action and more support from linebackers. Along with pass defence, Forrest is tasked with stopping the run at his new position. The five pounds he added over summer will help.
“There’s faster reads and stuff like that,” he says of his new responsibilities in the middle of the field. “I’m more involved with run support, which I think I’m more suited for.”
In his eighth season at the helm, Dinos head coach Blake Nill has the unenviable task of deciding who travels with the team and who stays home. Of the 86 student athletes on the field Aug. 24, Nill pared that number down to 42 for the Dinos’ Aug. 30 season-opener in Laval, Que.
Player-personnel calls are the most difficult chores on Nill’s to-do list. He’s had his eye on Forrest and charted the Cochranite’s development since joining the Dinos in fall 2012.
“He’s right on track. He played a little bit last year for us. I want to see Kellen on the field,” Nill says. “He’s working so hard. He competes.”
But so do all the players at Dinos camp. U of C played in the Vanier Cup final last year before succumbing to Laval.
“That’s the big thing about the kids here,” Nill continues. “There are more good players than there are positions.”
When asked if Forrest can make a difference on the field for U of C, Nill replied: “I think so. I think he’s exactly where we need him to be. He’s right on target. I’m hoping this is the year where we see a big improvement from him.”
Nill saw enough improvement in the Cochranite to load Forrest and his gear onto the team flight to Laval.
“I just like to get on the field and contribute any way I can,” Forrest surmises. “I’d just like to get on the field and contribute this year. And I think I can. I want to contribute and get us back to the Vanier Cup and win it this time.”
He’s got his chance now.
