Calgary Alberta, Canada's Best Youth Football

Discussion in 'LSU RECRUITING' started by jerryredden, Apr 19, 2015.

  1. jerryredden

    jerryredden Freshman

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    Spring football is prime scouting season
    Thursday, Apr 16, 2015 06:00 am By: Brendan Nagle
    Cochrane Eagle News

    In a season short on positives for the Cochrane Midget Lions, experts at the next level are still finding them. And it's costing eligible players who've declined to play community spring football this season. Dearly. Count Carleton University Ravens football head coach Steve Sumarah as someone finding positives among the Midget Lions ranks, making his flight from Ottawa worth the effort. Without giving too much away, Sumarah suggested there are at least a couple of Midget Lions players the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football program is tracking. And there would be more, if Cochrane had more live bodies in its spring-season community football program for Grade 9-11 players aged 14-18. Cochrane dressed 25 players in its 54-0 Calgary Area Midget Football Association (CAMFA) loss April 11 to Calgary Mavericks, which had twice the number of players in uniform. Obviously, Sumarah was scouting Mavs and all other CAMFA teams, along with Lions.

    “To be honest with you, I think it's the most important thing,” Sumarah said of his spring scouting chores at community football fields in the third province west of Ontario. “There's no secret football in Alberta is some of the strongest in the country.” “I believe that if you want to compete nationally, you have to recruit nationally. What better format than having all Grade 9-10-11s playing and then you can compare them playing against each other? I think it's a fantastic situation.” Sumarah is one of several CIS coaches on the ground right now scouting midget-aged football players.

    “Everybody sees it and sees the value in it,” Sumarah said of university coaches descending upon Calgary-area midget football. “If you're not here, you're crazy. Sometimes people don't realize the value these programs offer. With the opportunity to see spring football, this is what's happening. If you want to be seen, you need to be involved in these programs.”

    University of B.C., University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba; pretty much all CIS Canada West football coaches, and Carleton's Sumarah, were scouting April 11 CAMFA Week 3 action at Calgary's Shouldice Park and the Football Alberta camps April 12 at McMahon Stadium.

    “All the Canada West scouts will be here, for sure,” Midget Lions head coach Jud Graham said. “It's a great opportunity for players to get noticed.”

    Spring is prime recruiting season for universities, and there are at least a dozen eligible, high-caliber Cochrane-area football players not playing for Midget Lions this season and, therefore, not being scouted by universities like Carleton right now.

    “The way things are unfolding is it's happening sooner and sooner. You have to be ahead of the curve,” Sumarah said. “For us, we want to really make sure they (players) know who we are and they know we are interested.”

    Sumarah will take 10-15 player names away from his Alberta Midget spring-football scouting sojourn. The Carleton football coach will let those players and their parents know the Ottawa-based university is interested in inviting them to play/study at the university starting in fall 2016.

    http://site1451.goalline.ca/

    http://www.albertafootballnews.com/

    http://www.swbulldogs.com/
     
  2. Bengal B

    Bengal B Founding Member

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    OK, is LSU looking at any of those guys, eh.
     
  3. jerryredden

    jerryredden Freshman

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    I doubt it but maybe an opportunity exist?
     
  4. Bengal B

    Bengal B Founding Member

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    I don't know. I doubt that the quality of football being played and coached in Canada is up to US standards. LSU did have one Canadian who was pretty decent but not great, Peter Dykowski (sic)

    Because of the success of Australian punters maybe we should be looking down under for an Aussie place kicker. There has got to be a few good ones playing Australian Rules Football.
     
  5. jerryredden

    jerryredden Freshman

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    Regarding quality. I don't know about the who country but it is pretty high in the Calgary area. I am originally from Louisiana, leaving with work in 2003 in lived and worked in other parts of the U.S. for 10 years. In 2013 I moved (company transfer) to Calgary Alberta Canada. I had a young son playing football in Kentucky and was not sure what I would fine in Canada in regards to organized youth football. All I knew about Canada was that it was cold and snowy. I soon learned that the weather was not as bad as I thought and that youth football in Calgary rivaled anything I had seen in the States (Louisiana, Texas, etc.). When we arrived in Calgary and I signed up my son for football he was 13 (grade 8) and was in the Bantam age group. The team (Calgary Bantam Bulldogs) had a coaching staff made up of mostly area high school coaches. It was complete with a head coach, OC, DC and each positional coach. Kids play in the city league until high school. In the fall of 2014 he played DB and the DB coach had played his college ball for the Trojans of USC. However, what is very unique in the area is the Midget League. After Bantam they move to Midget ball but this is a spring season. So once a kid is in ninth grade they can play a fall Bantam season, then a spring Midget season and then play for their high school starting the next fall. Basically once they are in grade 9 they can play two organized seasons a year which is a tremendous advantage in development. I had a suspicion that this area must be the “capital” for Canadian youth football and the article, that started this tread, that came out last week supports that suspicion. As you said today Aussie punters seem to be all the rage with more and more getting a shot at College ball in the States. That was not always the case and one day someone from the U.S. will discover what is going on up here in Calgary. As an LSU fan I say why not the Tigers. I think it would be worth checking into. Just look at the International Bowl, which puts the best from the USA against the best from Canada for youth football. I was surprised to learn that Canada has dominated this completion recently. This game has included players in the past such as Shea Patterson so there are good quality players on both sides. I don't mean to say that LSU should make Calgary prime recruiting spot but it should be on their radar. Cincinnati is not a prime recruiting area for the Tigers but we did get Spencer Ware from that city.
     
    Bengal B and ParadiseiNC like this.

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