The Bow Valley High School Bobcats are sharpening their claws for another Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) football season.
The Bobcats, practising at the school field ahead of the Sept. 6 RVSA jamboree and the Sept. 10 regular-season kickoff against the Cochrane High School Cobras, were training hard under the watchful eye of head coach Scott Allard and his position coaches.
While every year can be considered a rebuilding year for high-school teams losing players to graduation, Allard likes the crop of players the Bobcats have harvested for this year’s RVSA football campaign.
There were 22 players on the field for the Aug. 29 workout, the fifth-straight day of training camp at BVHS.
Allard’s team numbers will swell when players return from summer vacation. The fall camp follows a robust spring camp the Bobcats held before summer break.
“Because of spring camp this year, I think we’re going to come out a little bit harder than we have in the past,” Allard speculated. “We had a pretty positive spring camp, we had 36 kids. For us, that’s huge.”
The departure of graduating players like lineman Greg Hufnagel and running back Jacob Neill have left gaps in the Bobcats roster Allard is now auditioning players to fill.
“That hurts,” Allard said of losing his senior class to graduation. “However, that being said, some of our newer kids and younger kids we’re going to have for a few more years. So it’s good.
““I think what we lost and what we gained is kind of the same.”
Scott Haigh is back for his second season at quarterback and is joined by returning receivers Michael Davies and Grayson Javorsky. John Hillier returns to tote the rock and play defence as well. Luke Edey and Luke Klassen return to the offensive/defensive line and are joined by newcomers like Anders Newman.
Kole Martin is a fresh face expected to contribute right away at running back.
“He’s come out like gangbusters,” Allard said of Martin.
Allard is looking forward to getting his kids some reps in the Sept. 6 football jamboree at Cochrane High.
“I think it’s a big thing for the kids,” Allard said of the RVSA football pre-season jamboree. “You throw them into game situations right away, these kids all start choking up because they haven’t played yet. By having the jamboree, we can work out a lot of schemes. We can look at different players in different positions.
“What it also does, especially early on, it gives some of the younger players an idea of what game speed is like.”
Game speed starts for real Sept. 10, when the Bobcats visit the Cobras, 4:30 p.m. kickoff.
