"Stick with it." With those words, Cochrane's Rob Cote recalled his path to success as a professional football player.
"Stick with it."
With those words, Cochrane's Rob Cote recalled his path to success as a professional football player.
The Calgary Stampeders fullback, in his eighth season with the Canadian Football League team, is off to the 102nd Grey Cup in Vancouver. His Stampeders schooled provincial-rival Edmonton Eskimos 43-18 in the CFL Western Final Nov. 23 at Calgary's McMahon Stadium, earning the West berth in the Nov. 30 league final.
When the 2004 Cochrane High School Cobras grad left town to pursue his football dream with the B.C. Junior Football League's Victoria Rebels, he was unsure where it would end up. He's been playing elite pro three-down football in Calgary for eight years.
He still has unfinished business to tend to after watching the Stamps' 2008 Grey Cup win from the sidelines and playing in the team's 2012 championship loss to Toronto.
"It's been a thorn in my side," Cote, 28, says of the item left on his CFL to-do list. "I'm pretty happy with my career, but I'll never be satisfied until I'm on the field when we go and win one of these things. I know a lot of guys in the locker room feel the same way. We're hungry. We're not satisfied."
The CFL East-winning Hamilton Tiger-Cats stand between Cote and his ultimate goal.
"They're a great team. Obviously they've got a dangerous weapon on special teams who put on a great performance," he observes of the Ticats and punt-returner Brandon Banks, who ran two punts back for touchdowns in Hamilton's 40-24 East win over Montreal on Nov. 23. "They're very physical on defence. Their quarterback is playing great football. The whole team is playing outstanding. The second half of the year they were a tough team to beat. It's going to be a tough game.
"But we're up for the challenge."
Cochrane Cobras co-head-coach and offensive coordinator Rob McNab, who coached Cote in high school, feels his 6-foot-1, 225-pound prodigy is good to go. Cobras won three-straight provincial Tier 3 high school football championships (2002-04) with Cote starting at slotback and linebacker.
"Just a true football player," McNab recalls of Cote. "Very intense, athletic, intelligent and just always appeared to really love the game and be out on the field with us."
That intensity followed Cote on his journey to the Canadian pro ranks, a journey with its beginnings rooted in Cochrane football.
"Football in Cochrane is kind of an institution. They do a fantastic job," Cote states. "I think Cochrane High does just an incredible job of bringing football players up through the program. I'm a proud Cobra, always will be. Even from the Cochrane Lions minor football program, I've played and coached with the Lions programs. They're doing great things with the kids out there. I love to see it. I love to see the good job the coaches are doing and then seeing some kids come out of those programs."
Some of the kids currently coming out of those programs include former Cochrane Midget Lions running back Ryder Stone playing for Ivy League school Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Cobras currently playing at the next level include offensive lineman Dale Cummings at Montana State University-Northern, defensive lineman Bryce McKinnon and receiver Kyle Moortgat at University of Regina and defensive back Kellen Forrest at University of Calgary.
Who knows where they'll end up?
"You never know what can happen," Cote stresses. "I didn't expect to have this kind of career, or even to ever make it to this level. You keep working and you never know what can happen."
You could play for a Grey Cup, with the West Division-winning Calgary Stampeders, if you stick with it.
