After years of coming up short, the Bow Valley Bobcats high-school football team is hoping to shift its fortunes around on the gridiron this season.
The Bobcats' new head coach, Dustin Paul, said he wants to help change the culture of the Bobcats football program, which has struggled to put wins together in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) in recent years.
Having joined the high-school squad as a defensive coordinator and linebacker coach last year, Paul made the transition to the head-coaching role this fall.
“The biggest thing with the Bobcats right now is we’re trying to rebuild everything and change the culture completely,” said Paul, who has also coached the Cochrane Lions minor football teams for the last eight years. He's also a Bobcats alumnus, having played for the team in the early 2000s.
“It’s not where it should be or where it was,” he said of the Bobcats' fortunes in the last several years. “Something definitely happened where the excitement hasn’t been there, and the energy and culture haven’t been there. Those are things I want to bring back to the team and build that environment up.”
The Bobcats opened the 2022 RVSA campaign on the road, losing 23-7 to the Bert Church Chargers in Airdrie on Sept. 3. However, Paul noted Bow Valley held Bert Church to a 9-1 score in the first half, and was able to absorb the Chargers' offence – led by running back Damien Cherry and wide receiver Charlie Wiersma – until the third quarter.
An injury to Cherry in the second half resulted in a lengthy hiatus as the two teams waited for an ambulance to arrive. According to Paul, once the game resumed, the Bobcats lost the defensive stability they had enjoyed up until that point, conceding two more touchdowns and seeing their chance of a comeback ebb away.
“We came out flat, but prior to that, it was a really tight game and we were in it right up until then,” he said.
Towards the end of the game, the Bobcats managed to score their first touchdown of the season, when Paul's son, Grade 10 wide receiver James Drake, made it into the end zone.
“On both sides of the ball, we played really well,” Paul said. “Our offence started a bit slowly but we turned it up by the end of the game and ended up getting a touchdown, which was huge and helped us a lot. Our defence played on their heads all game, which was great to see.”
Thanks to his time as a Lions coach over the years, Paul said he is familiar with most of the Bobcats' players, having coached them at the club level in the atom, peewee, and bantam age groups.
With the perennially dominant Cochrane Cobras and Bow Valley each drawing players from the Lions, Paul said there's no reason both teams shouldn't be competitive.
“With both us and Cochrane High getting [players] from the Lions, it should be a pretty 50-50 split and hasn’t been in years previous," he said. “My biggest thing is I want to see the kids going back to where they’re supposed to be playing and having two viable football options in town, because there’s no reason there can’t be.”
This year's Bow Valley roster is quite young, according to Paul, with the bulk of the team in Grade 10 and just six seniors.
Right now there are 33 players on the roster, but Paul said a few more players are likely to join the team now that the school year is officially underway.
While learning the game and building the team's sense of camaraderie are the Bobcats' main goals this season, Paul said he still wants to see Bow Valley string a few wins together.
“I think by the end of the year, you’re going to see a gigantic difference between where we are now and where we’re going,” he said. “Even where we were at the end of last year compared to where we are now, we’re light years ahead.”
The Bobcats will host their home-opener this Friday against the unbeaten W.H. Croxford Cavaliers, who are coming off big wins against the George McDougall Mustangs and Chestermere Lakers in their first two games of 2022.
Kick-off is set for 7 p.m. on the turf field behind Bow Valley High School.
